Oh Say Can You See…

I think I was in Junior High when I really read the poem that had become our National Anthem. The first stanza is dripping with imagery that pierces my heart. Imagine for a moment Francis Scott Key was standing before you asking the questions which have echoed through the decades. 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, through the perilous fight, or 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 over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Forgive me for being what some may consider sappy, but for me the final question – the one I have put in red – is the one I ask myself when the fireworks are exploding in the sky. Fireworks are, after all, our reenactment of that fateful battle (and the other battles that have secured our freedom) which inspired this timeless this poem.

Martin Luther King, Jr., called the Declaration of Independence a Promissory Note. Every Fourth, while the “ramparts are gallantly streaming” I am humbled by the realization that I am a beneficiary of that Promise. I am humbled by the sacrifice of the people who daily get up and defend what that Star-Spangled-Banner represents. I understand our Nation is polarized right now. We have ideological differences that create deep chasms where reconciliation and understanding have gone to die. Yet, I still cling to the Promise that we have “unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator.” I hold on to the objective penned in the Preamble of the Constitution, which states: “We the People, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” What a mission statement!

This Fourth of July is the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It isn’t more spectacular than last years’ Fourth. It isn’t less important than next years’ Fourth. It is amazingly wonderful every year because this experiment we call the United States of America is amazingly wonderful. So, when you are watching fireworks this year, in between the ooohs and aaahs, perhaps you will consider what those explosions in the sky represent. And, as the National Anthem is being sung and that last question asks if the flag still waves, perhaps you will be inclined to answer with resounding glee, “You bet it does!”