As pertinent today as it was at the Defense of Ft. McHenry on September 20, 1814:
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<br>The Star Spangled Banner
<br>By Francis Scott Key
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<br>Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
<br>What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
<br>Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
<br>O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
<br>And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
<br>Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
<br>O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
<br>O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
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<br>On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
<br>Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
<br>What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
<br>As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
<br>Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
<br>In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
<br>'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
<br>O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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<br>And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
<br>That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
<br>A home and a country should leave us no more?
<br>Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
<br>No refuge could save the hireling and slave
<br>From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
<br>And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
<br>O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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<br>Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
<br>Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
<br>Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
<br>Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
<br>Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
<br>And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
<br>And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
<br>O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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<br>On September 11, 2001, an attack was made on the United States of America.
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<br>We must remember our founding fathers who said so eloquently that "...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...and to provide new Guards for their future security...they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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<br>It is now time for our Government to fulfill it's promise and destiny: The promise of security for all American's.
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<br>God Bless America
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<br>Mark MacNeil
<br>Inter17R 110
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