Old Gory

Baseball season is nearly upon us, and I am excited! Old Style, malt cups, dashed hopes! (I live on Chicago's north side, I've come to terms with it.) And once again, I'll be standing with my right hand over my heart, singing the Star-Spangled Banner. Which got me thinking...

Here is the weird thing about the Star-Spangled Banner (aside from the obviously weird fact that it's a song about a flag): it's a question.

I know folks like to toss around the phrase "land of the free and home of the brave," but the song we sing when we go to watch the Cubs play doesn't say anything along the lines of, "This is America, dammit, land of the free and home of the brave and a big old invincible rockin' place to be!" It basically says, "Pardon me, but the horrific violence has made everything smoke-filled and chaotic, and now it's barely dawn and still pretty dark and I don't even know what this nation's status is - can you see through all this crap and tell me whether or not our flag is still up?"

It gave me pause. Americans, I think, are occasionally guilty of a bit of braggadocio when it comes to the ol' U S of A. After all, we are told, it is the greatest damn country on the planet, and I have yet to see proof to the contrary (though I admit that I am not well-traveled). So it struck me as odd that the lyrics of our national anthem seem to be from the perspective of one who, when it comes to this country, is very ... unsure. "Did we even make it?" the song seems to be asking. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of our nation's strength.

But that is not the whole story.

In fact, the Star-Spangled Banner, written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, has four verses; we only ever sing the first one at Wrigley Field. And until today, I had forgotten that the other three verses existed. They tell a tale of violence, of bloody vindication, of devastating come-uppance, and, interestingly, they seem to advocate the sort of Christian cowboy attitude that has earned the U. S. a bit of a nasty international reputation over the past few years.

See for yourself:

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?

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!

Oh! 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!

"Conquer we must when our cause is just?" That's a slippery slope, especially when we bring God into the mix. Anybody ever hear of the Crusades?

I think I'll go ahead and just stick to the first verse. After all, I don't want to miss the opening pitch.