My family has been able to attend a wonderful fireworks display each July for the last several years. Sitting comfortably on well-manicured, insect-free lawns, we watch an impressive, semi-private show complete with accompanying music. This is an event, along with ball games and the Olympics that makes me painfully aware of my children’s incompetence in singing our National Anthem. I need to make a conscious effort this summer to remedy this.
The lyrics aren’t the easiest to remember and understand for little ones. They are both poetic and narrative and filled with imagery of war’s realities and ideals. We sit peacefully in beaches, parks, parties and events watching an exciting display of color and light, while Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner, sat about 200 years ago witnessing a different kind of rocket and bomb: the kind that could take both his life and the precious freedom of our young country in one night.
Why a song about war for our National Anthem? Think about the Declaration of Independence, the signing of which we celebrate this 4th. It became a Declaration of War, a war for Independence, for freedom. What did that freedom mean? Freedom from unjust taxes, freedom of religion, freedom to maintain autonomy over your own home, to speak your mind, even against the government, to be, quite simply, independent.
How does our society view freedom today? Freedom to do whatever you want? Freedom from responsibility? From all authority? Freedom from religion? If we look to the hardships in which this country was forged, and in particular, in which our National Anthem was written, we are reminded that this is not true freedom. True freedom involves sacrifice, commitment, and includes submission to our ideals and beliefs. True freedom is like true love and has nothing to do with hedonism or selfishness.
While our young children might not understand all the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner, or the complexity of the freedom it describes, I suggest you look beyond my example and make this song a regular part of your young child’s life. If possible, include the final verse which reminds us of the importance of faith for our country and for our freedom.
