The lack of reason, common sense, and virtue in the political and personal spheres in America have led to a rash of hatred, prejudice, and division.
However, I do not wish to leave us on a dark note, stumbling around in blindness with no hope of seeing the light. For one, I do not believe the darkness will win. For another, I want others to embrace the cause of freedom as I have and seek to be the light in the darkness.
We celebrate a holiday that has largely lost its meaning in our present culture. The Fourth of July offers a token nod to a day for our nation’s freedom and constitutional roots, but it really has become more a day to eat summery foods and shoot off sparkly lights into the night sky.
Most of the meaning and nuance of the day has been lost in the commercialism of the red, white, and blue.
Most historians, when expounding upon the significance of Independence Day, would speak on the War for American Independence and the battles they fought. They would talk of the Constitution and the Declaration and all the usual symbols of our reasons for celebrating our freedoms.
I would like to take you back to another war, shortly after the Revolutionary one, in which our fledgling nation once more fought for its hard-won independence.
The War of 1812
Britain was in a headlock with France, fighting against Napoleon’s encroaching army. Still resentful over the loss of the colonies, the British army had enforced a blockade on the seas, pressing Americans into naval service while also gifting the native population with weapons to destroy pioneer attempts to tame the wild west.
They had no desire to cede more land to those American rebels. In a series of inciting events, the newly-formed nation once again declared war on the motherland. This war would last three years, with the United States also enduring a struggle within its own political parties.
On the one hand, the Federalist Party favored bigger government and closer alliances with Britain, while the Democratic-Republican party desired more states' rights, expansionism, and a clean break from Great Britain.
I could go into all the various reasons for the conflict and expound on battles, but I wish to focus on just one event among many.
In a time of honor and duty, the two armies tried to maintain a tenuously amicable relationship when it came to the exchanging or releasing of prisoners of war.
One such release occurred on board a British ship, the HMS Tonnant. After dining as guests of three British officers, Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner and Francis Scott Key were forced to remain aboard due to their intelligence of the British military strength and position.
Having thus been prevented from leaving, they along with the prisoner whose freedom they’d negotiated were forced to watch as the city of Baltimore and Fort McHenry were bombarded relentlessly all night long.
Despite the brutality of the attack, the American flag still waved in the morning breeze as the smoke and flames died down. This inspiring proof that Fort McHenry still stood, gave Francis Scott Key the words to a poem that would become our nation’s national anthem more than a century later.
Whenever I celebrate the Fourth of July with family and friends, this song reminds me of the resilience and conviction that made America a beacon of light to the world. The men and women who over the years have fought and even died to preserve this beacon have not fought and died in vain.
Whatever the mainstream media may tell us, I see and hear signs that conviction, honor, and resilience still lives in our nation.
Whatever madness has overtaken our politicians, our college campuses, our churches, and communities, I have not lost hope that our nation is still a nation to take pride in, a nation whose principles and values are worth fighting for.
Do we have a battle to fight? Yes. Will our struggles to overcome fear and pride and madness be easy? Not by a long shot.
Will we prevail in this fight to end government oppression and bring order and reason back to our nation?
I pray that it is so.
Let us embrace the uncertain future and take up the cause for which a man was once inspired to pen such poignant words.
Read them, listen to the music, and don’t just file it away as a nostalgic reflection of glory days gone by.
Hear the sounds of the fireworks, watch their brilliance in the night sky, and ponder the men who fought and died under a different sort of rocket fire.
Thank a soldier, a police officer, a firefighter, a public worker for their service to our country.
Honor the fallen, commend the brave men and women who are still alive to fight for the preservation of our freedom.
Join the battle with us and remember. Please remember why we continue to fight:
The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott 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 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!
