By Dan Irvin
I don’t know if you know this, but next Sunday is Flag Day. It’s an official holiday, though not a so-called National Holiday, so nobody gets off work or anything on Monday.
President Wilson proclaimed Flag Day to be every June 14th back in 1916, so believe or not, this will be the 100th observance of Flag Day. Ironically, it was in that same year that Wilson – while stopping short of proclaiming it to be the national anthem – said that the “Star Spangled Banner” should be played at all government and military events.
You probably know the story: That Francis Scott Key put the words to paper after witnessing Fort McHenry’s survival of bombardment by the British in 1814.
We’ve all heard the words to the anthem hundreds of time and can probably sing it by heart, but we rarely if ever listen to those words, which is too bad…
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 rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that Star – Spangled Banner yet wave
o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I hope we’ll always live up to those closing words; be a country that doesn’t stoop to the level of our enemies; that’s not defined by our might or wealth but by being a place where everybody gets a fair shot; where everybody – all the tired and poor and hungry are welcome.
Say, does that Star – Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Dan Irvin is Vice-President of the Bloomington Public Library Foundation Board, and a member of the Heartland Community College Foundation Board.
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