This morning I overheard in the background as I was taking the dog outside, that someone was going to be singing The Star Spangled Banner at one of our nation's notable sites, I did not hear which one, nor did I want to hear it, because it was to be sung in Spanish.  It reminded me of something hubby's sister had sent to me, and the day before Memorial Day seemed to be an apropos time to present it here. 

"Near the end of his life the great science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about the four stanzas of our national anthem.  However brief, this well-circulated piece is an eye opener from the dearly departed doctor.  "I have a weakness.  I am crazy absolutely nuts, about our national anthem.  The words are difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but frequently when I am taking a shower, I sing it with as much power and emotion as I can.  It shakes me up every time. 

"I was once asked to speak at a luncheon.  Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going to sing our national anthem...all four stanzas.  This was greeted with loud groans.  One man closed the door to the kitchen, where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distraction.  "Thanks, Herb", I said.  "That's all right," he said.  "It was at the request of the kitchen staff."  I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas.  Let me tell you, those people had never heard it before, or had never really listened.  I got a standing ovation.  But it was not me.  It was the anthem.

"More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of the anthem, and sang all four stanzas.  Again there was a wild ovation and prolonged applause.  And again, it was the anthem and not me. 

"So now let me tell you how it came to be written.  In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of the seas.  We were in the right.  For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather weak country.  Great Britain was in a life and death struggle with Napoleon.  In fact, just as the United States declared war, Napoleon Marched off to invade Russia.  If he won, as everyone expected, he could control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated.  It was no time for her to be involved in an American war. 

"At first, our seamen proved better than the British.  After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."  However, the weight of the British navy beat our own ships eventually.  New England, hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession. 

"Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate.  Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a three-pronged attack.  The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of New England.  The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west.  The central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York.  If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which stilled hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two.  The fate of the United State, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of the central prong. 

"The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took Washington D.C  The they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore.  On September 12, the arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns controlled the harbor.  If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort. 

"On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner.  Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negiotiate his release.  The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to wait.  It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry was about to start. 

"As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry.  Throught the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets.  They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying.  But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell.  Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.  As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see which flag flew over it.  He and the physician must have asked each other over and over, Can you see the flag?

"After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events of the ight.  Called "The Defense of Fort McHenry", it was publkished in newspapers and swept the nation.  Someone noted that the words fit an old English tune called, "To Anacreon in Heaven"...a difficult melody with an uncomfortably large vocal range.  For obvoius reasons, Key's work became known as "The Star Spangled Banner", and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United States. 

"Now that you know the story, her are the words.  Presumable the old doctor is speaking.  This is what he asks Key;
"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,
o'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming? 

And the rocket's red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof thro' 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?

"Ramparts, in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that surround a fort.  The first stanza asks a question.  The second gives an answer;

"On the shore, dimly seen
Thro' the mist of the deep,
wher 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 first beam,
In full glory reflected,
now shines on 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.

" 'The towering steep" is again, the ramparts.  The bombardment has failed, and the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure.  In the third stanza, I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American triumph.  In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to act otherwise.  During World War II, when the British were our staunch allies, this third stanza was not sung.  However, I know it, so here it is:

"And where is that band
who so vauntingly swore
That the hovoc of war
and the battle's confusion

A home and a country
should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out
their foul footstep's 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. 

"The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than the other three and with even deeper feeling;

Oh! thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes
and the war's desolation,

Blest with vicotry and peace,
may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made
and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must,
for our cause is just,
And this be our motto;
"In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner
in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave."

Thank you, Dr. Asimov.  You are blessed to not be in America today.  We are at a time in our history where a Mexican invasion is trying to take over not just our country, but our national anthem, and then there are those like Michael Newdow want us to take God out of everything.  As we can see from the anthem, God has always been a part of our great country, and if we do not keep God as the center of our country, we're going to lose this invasion from within, to the invasion from foreigners and Islamofascists. 

I just heard Frist try to justify the abomination of a bill that came out of the senate as being "an overall will of the Senate".  They just do not get it!  IT IS NOT THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, SENATORS!