Our Flag STILL Flies
A song seeming to glorify war, the United States National Anthem is the focus of a long and protracted movement to remove it as National Anthem. Yet that movement repeatedly fails to gain traction. Why? Look at the words of the song. It is about underdogs. A people struggling to retain a barely obtained and long fight for independence. It is about a people deeply decided politically, some wanting independence and others wanting to reestablish ties to the Mother Country. It is written about a battle that should have been a massacre. Fort Henry, offshore from Baltimore, was barely a military establishment that had become a refugee center. Women and children outnumbered soldiers. And the entire British fleet sailed offshore. If the fort would strike the colors the mighty naval guns would not fire. And as an act of civility, when bombardment began, the British would immediately cease firing if only the flag would lower. Thousands of American prisoners huddled in the prison shi