Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Happy Independence Day!

As we celebrate the birthday of our great nation, I thought it would be good for us to rememberthe words of Francis Scott Key as written in the Star Spangled Banner.

Usually you only hear the first two or three verses sung, but I have posted all four verses here. All of us know the words by heart, but please take the time to really read what he was saying. I think it is very important that we remember the history of our nation, because it is through the reminder of why our forefathers were willing to give all they had, even their very blood, for freedom that we remember why we must not throw their gift of love away. Why we must continue to fight to keep our freedom intact.

God bless all those who are fighting to keep us free, whether it is in the government, the military, or in the home.

Remember, freedom is never comes without a price. What are you willing to give for your freedom?



The Star Spangled Banner

O! 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 through 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 in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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!

--Francis Scott Key

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