Would you hold up the flag? Published in newspaper 12/28/09

I received an audio link the other day with the story of Francis Scott Key and how he came to write the Star Spangled Banner. The story is moving and you can look it up in the history books or on the Internet.


The short version is that the British Navy had hundreds of ships in the harbor at Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. They gave the insurgents one way out of being slaughtered… they could lower their flag at any time and the battery of artillery would immediately stop, the war would be over and Great Britain would once again, be in control of the new country. The patriots, of course, were determined that wasn't going to happen. A flag had been commissioned with dimensions of 32 x 40 feet with each star being 2 feet across, so that there would be no question that the enemy could see it flying from any vantage point.

Francis Scott Key, an attorney, had been sent to one of the British ships to make a deal for the release of prisoners when the officer told him they would all be free by the next morning because they would again be in control of the land. The firing commenced and Key watched it all from the ship. He conveyed what was happening to the prisoners in the hold of the ship in a play-by-play account. They kept asking him if the flag was still flying? Is the flag still flying? Can you still see the flag? The men below were praying during the night that the flag was still there in the morning. The British aimed all they had at the flag for the last three hours of the assault.

In the morning after all was over, there on the high point was the flag...in tatters...and at an odd angle, but there nonetheless. History tells us that the odd angle was because during the attack, the flag pole was snapped and to keep the flag flying, even though bombs were coming in faster and heavier, patriots were holding it up there. As each man was killed, another replaced him and another and another. These were the patriots that won our freedom....the kind of men that are heroes...the kind of men that have maintained our freedom.

I think the generation before me had that same patriot spirit, having been through the great World Wars. They sacrificed a lot. They passed it on to our generation. We saw patriotism in action: saluting the flag, standing when the flag went by, learning the Star Spangled Banner, the Pledge of Allegiance, and we honored our military. We respected our government and trusted them to protect us from the Communists. We were proud to be Americans. New immigrants arriving on our shores or coming in from the south or the north were proud to be Americans. They learned our language and our ways because they wanted to fit into the American way of life and they cherished the freedom that came with it.

This has all caused me to wonder if our generation has managed somehow to instill patriotism and pride into the younger generations and to wonder if we have allowed being politically correct to dissuade pride in people that have newly come to the land of hope and opportunity.

Have our younger generations managed to salvage what it really means to be an American or realize how many have died for them to be able to live free from tyranny?

I know the Viet Nam police action took its toll against support of the federal government and the military. Corruption in the government hasn't helped any, either.

I know there are a lot of problems that have come out of diversity like having to have your own identity (ex. Mexican-American, Japanese-American or African-American.) I'm thinking that everyone should just be Americans and unify as one people. We have divisions of political parties that are supposed to be speaking for "we, the people" not self-interests or special interests, so much so, that you don't hear about bipartisanship working anymore. We have religiosity dividing us into even more little groups when it should be bringing us together. Diversity and patriotism are opposites. We can't have both.

Our patriotism must totally outweigh our need to be an individual. Our country must take precedence over any one person's or group’s ego or arrogance.

I keep hoping that patriotism may be laying in wait and hidden until "such a time as this" comes upon them like happened on 9/11 and that the sleeping giant of God-fearing patriots will awaken and be ready to strike back at the snake. We are seeing this more and more as tea parties form and Internet sites, blogs, and other groups are reacting to the liberal left's agenda.

We have a responsibility to instill patriotism in each generation by teaching and showing them how to defend our Constitution, our rights and our country especially against those from within the system that are supposed to be protecting and working for us.

Although there will always be those who scoff and put down our country, burn our flag and spit on our soldiers, I hope that there are more God-fearing patriots out there who are going to be ready to stand up to threats within the United States, when they have had enough. I hope that the generations, including mine, have enough pride in their country and belief in God so deeply ingrained in their hearts that they will rise up and go into action to keep our country free from the tyrannical threats coming from any direction.

Search your heart when you ask yourself these questions, “Are you a patriot that would defend your freedom? Would you hold up our Stars and Stripes to keep her waving, even in the face of certain death? Do you love this country so much that you would put her survival above your own?” Are you part of the sleeping giant or have we failed?