Declare your pick!

Today is Election Day. I'm so excited to vote, yet terrified as to what the outcome might be. In spirit of our Nation (because my pride may not last much longer) I thought I'd blog on the National Anthem and some of it's history. If you are anything like me, knowing the history of ANYTHING always makes life more interesting. ;) 

During the War of 1812, on September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington DC. The release was completed, but Key was held by the British overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, Key peered through clearing smoke to see an enormous American flag flying proudly after a 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry. He was so delighted to see the flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion, with a note that it should be sung to the popular British melody "To Anacreon in Heaven."

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it be played at military and naval occasions. In 1931, the Star-Spangled Banner became our national anthem.

Some of you may not have known this hasn't been our National Anthem wasn't apart of our nation since its founding, just since 1931!!  Now doesn't it have so much more meaning?!? And to close our lesson, I brought the words. Soak 'em in. It may be a while before we get to sing this with pride again...

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, thro' 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.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?