Enjoyment comes in many forms and for me it was playing 27 holes of golf (47-45-45) at Oakhurst Country Club yesterday. My absolute favorite thing to do is play golf.
I'm addicted.
I can't explain it.
I just am.
And because of my 8am tee time, and playing golf in 90 degree heat until 3:15pm, I was unable to write this piece; the last piece concerning our nations birthday.
As I mentioned on Saturday, we are the greatest country...we are the United States of America. We also have the greatest "National Anthem", the Star Spangled Banner, in the world. It is undoubtedly the best and most recognizable anthem in the world. All you have to do is watch the Olympics and you'll see what I mean.
Our National Anthem, when sung correctly and beautifully, can produce pride and inspiration, that at times, is unexplainable. Whether it is Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All-star game in Los Angeles or the playing of the anthem on a Friday night during football season at any high school in America; goose bumps can be found.
I can't explain it.
It just happens.
That sense of pride and hope.
It's real...you can feel it.
I often think that was the same thing that Francis Scott Key, lawyer, poet, and author...two out a three ain't bad, was feeling in 1814.
It was about a week after the city of
Washington had been badly burned, British
troops moved up to the primary port at
Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. Francis Scott Key
visited the British fleet in the Harbor on September 13th
to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes who
had been captured during the Washington raid. The two were detained on
the ship so as not to warn the Americans while the
Royal Navy attempted to bombard Fort McHenry. At
dawn on the 14th, Key noted that the huge American
flag, which now hangs in the Smithsonian's American
History Museum, was still waving and had not been
removed in defeat.
The sight inspired him to write a poem titled Defense
of Fort McHenry. The poem was eventually set to music that had
originally
been written by English composer John Stafford Smith for a song titled
"The Anacreontic Song". The end result was the inspiring song now
considered the national anthem of the United
States of America. It was accepted as such by public
demand for the next century or so, but became even more accepted as the
national anthem during the World Series of Baseball in 1917 when it was
sung in honor of the brave armed forces fighting in the Great War. The
World Series performance moved everyone in
attendance, and after that it was repeated for every game.
Finally, on
March 3, 1931, the American Congress, and our 31st President, Herbert Hoover, proclaimed it as the
national anthem; 116 years after it was first written.
Herbert Hoover (31st)
Today, 195 years later, the song is as beautiful as it was in 1814. As we reflect on the past 187 days of 2010 let's be mindful of the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf in this year alone. Many parents sleep every night with a heavy heart as their love ones are on foreign soil defending our country, our flag, and our anthem. And over the next 179 days we have remaining in 2010 let's be conscientious of the fact that we have much more in common that we could ever imagine and our differences are not as great as we make them out to be.
We are one country, one people that share the same basic hopes and dreams. Hopes and dreams that consist of, but not limited to, a better tomorrow, a healthy and productive life, and for the safety and well being of our children.
We are a blessed people.
The National Anthem
| Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's
early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! |
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| And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. |
|
| O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! |
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Did you ever wonder who designed our current flag?
sbb 6.7.10 (The National Anthem . Whitney Houston) . 994
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