edward ohare
2007-07-05 05:20:15 UTC
As I start writing this, its a few minutes into July 5. I still hear
an occasional explosion of fireworks, the work of private citizens;
the large professional fireworks shows have all been over for two
hours or more. Many of the professional shows included at some
point a performance of the National Anthem, stated years ago by former
Indiana Congressman Andy Jacobs to be a song of war, and one that
should be replaced by America the Beautiful.
Congressman Jacobs, however, was out of step with his Hoosier
constituents and most Americans on this issue. And he was, at least
when considered during a superficial evaluation, out of step with
Hoosiers on other things too, being a vegetarian living in a meat
consuming and producing State, a peaceful individual in a State where
many residents considered the attitude leading up to a bar room brawl
was appropriate foreign policy, and a Democrat in a State that usually
voted Republican.
Yet despite all these differences, only once in over thirty years were
the Republicans able to gerrymander his district into one where he
couldn't win. Hoosiers voted for him because he ran clean campaigns
and because he was widely perceived as being honest.
But I wonder, if today, Jacobs might consider the Anthem to be a song
raising a serious question, rather than one glorifying war. I never
considered it to be a pro war song; rather I saw it as one relating an
historical event. Most Americans have gotten to the point of merely
reciting the words and have not considered the story.
At dusk, Francis Scott Key saw the Flag flying over the American fort.
During the night battle, he could see it because the explosions
illuminated it. At dawn, there was no question about the outcome of
the battle: the Americans hadn't won, but they hadn't lost either.
America was still the land of the free and home of the brave. But
Key's question was whether the symbol, the flag, was still flying over
that land and home.
"Oh say does that star spangled banner still wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
It was.
Today I asked myself that question, not in the context of history, but
in the context of today.
"Oh say does that star spangled banner still wave
O'er the land of the free and the home or the brave?"
And I concluded the Flag is flying, but not over the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
an occasional explosion of fireworks, the work of private citizens;
the large professional fireworks shows have all been over for two
hours or more. Many of the professional shows included at some
point a performance of the National Anthem, stated years ago by former
Indiana Congressman Andy Jacobs to be a song of war, and one that
should be replaced by America the Beautiful.
Congressman Jacobs, however, was out of step with his Hoosier
constituents and most Americans on this issue. And he was, at least
when considered during a superficial evaluation, out of step with
Hoosiers on other things too, being a vegetarian living in a meat
consuming and producing State, a peaceful individual in a State where
many residents considered the attitude leading up to a bar room brawl
was appropriate foreign policy, and a Democrat in a State that usually
voted Republican.
Yet despite all these differences, only once in over thirty years were
the Republicans able to gerrymander his district into one where he
couldn't win. Hoosiers voted for him because he ran clean campaigns
and because he was widely perceived as being honest.
But I wonder, if today, Jacobs might consider the Anthem to be a song
raising a serious question, rather than one glorifying war. I never
considered it to be a pro war song; rather I saw it as one relating an
historical event. Most Americans have gotten to the point of merely
reciting the words and have not considered the story.
At dusk, Francis Scott Key saw the Flag flying over the American fort.
During the night battle, he could see it because the explosions
illuminated it. At dawn, there was no question about the outcome of
the battle: the Americans hadn't won, but they hadn't lost either.
America was still the land of the free and home of the brave. But
Key's question was whether the symbol, the flag, was still flying over
that land and home.
"Oh say does that star spangled banner still wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
It was.
Today I asked myself that question, not in the context of history, but
in the context of today.
"Oh say does that star spangled banner still wave
O'er the land of the free and the home or the brave?"
And I concluded the Flag is flying, but not over the land of the free
and the home of the brave.