Cover of sheet music for "The Star-Spangled Banner", transcribed for piano by Ch. Voss, Philadelphia: G. Andre & Co., 1862

As I often do, I was listening to the Glenn Beck radio show on my way to work and he started talking about the need for an anthem. A song to rally around to win this country back. It caught me a bit off guard. He is always saying how we (Our Nation) needs to get back to what we once stood for. So why a new anthem I ask? What is wrong with Key’s lyrics?

I often read these words, just like I read the Declaration of Independence. I’m sure others do as well, It keeps me grounded and inspires me to be more politically active, to use my voice, to protect OUR rights.

So why a new anthem? He stated he is working with a couple of artists and played a bit of each of the works, then this question came to mind. Do we need a new anthem, or does Beck need to make money? Please take the time to read the below words, read them slowly. Read the entire work that we as a nation have forgotten to teach our children in public school.

Please leave your comments below. Answer this! DO WE NEED A NEW ANTHEM?

STAR SPANGLED BANNER

O! 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 rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! 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, O! 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.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry 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!

Lyrics and Image from Wikipedia