When I was still a very little girl I hated the Star Spangled Banner. I was after all the same very little girl who in, stiff dark blue hand-me-down jeans, a white turtle neck, and Rainbow Brite suspenders, was dragged to anti-nuclear everything protests, social marches, events like/including hands across America and sometimes late at night, in pjs, across town somewhere to a basement coffee house where people talked about politics and religion and I ate bagels and drank coffee.
To a very young, very adorable pigtailed version of me the Star Spangled Banner was just about another war we didn't even win. War was something I was quite aware of. My dad was Career Military, he had proudly fought in Vietnam and remained in the army up into 90s. I had heard enough stories to fill the creative blanks of my little mind.
War scared the crap out of me.
I was not yet in Preschool when I first heard about the on going Civil War in Lebanon and far too young to understand there was a mighty big difference between the small Middle Eastern country, Lebanon, and Mt. Lebanon, the small upper middle class suburb of Pittsburgh I called home. Many nights I laid awake my eyes peeking out the window next to my bed - through the tree branches that hung over my window I searched the skies for military helicopters, the shrubs for skulking camo clad enemies. I logged many hours in the wee hours of the morning playing dead, laying deathly still, taking small shallow breaths, practicing the art of not reacting to anything weather they be tickles or a cold steel muzzle pressed against my head These were important skills to have if ever ambushed or drafted to fight - I would simply fall on the battlefield and hope they didn't take pot shots on the dead. What can I say I was a battlefield coward.
It was during one of those long nights that my sister poked me with her bony elbow and informed me of the difference in the two Lebanon's. I laid awake that night as well, but this time it was a different kind of awake, it was the kind of awake that comes with new found knowledge. I realized that while there was no war raging in my backyard that where ever war raged there might be a little girl who couldn't sleep because there was in fact a war in her back yard. The thoughts and questions that came to me that night stayed decades later - some still today. On many sleepless nights I have thought and rethought and come to many very different conclusions on the subject of War and Wars, past, present, and future.
This in mind, my dislike for an anthem that seemingly glorified war is quite easy to follow. That was until I actually learned more about the circumstances surrounding it's having been penned.
History Lesson: Everyone knows Frances Scott Key, & "some other guy",wrote the Star Spangled Banner as prisoners of war on board a warship off Baltimore. It seemed Baltimore was about to be sacked when low and behold the sun rose and old glory was still beating in the wind. What most have forgotten however is that the War of 1812 & a moment like that marked a substantial moment in US history. The 30 years that followed the Rev War had been tumultuous to say the least - insurrection was abundant at every turn, economic depression, politics, state building, debts, and the idea of one union itself threatened to tare the new country apart at the seams. As always Super Powers France and England continued to battle each other - caught in the middle of their melee stability was at a premium for the US. Having no hindsight on unfolding matters there was no guarantee of what would happen. The Revolutions and Republics of other countries had been short lived. The country was forced into war. In the end the US stood up against a world super power - held its own, forced a stalemate and became a global contender. The moment captured by the Star Spangled Banner wasn't just against all odds a battle had been won but that by the skin of its teeth this country was here to stay (not that it wouldn't have it's problems). The republican experiment was no longer just an experiment.... it's a song about survival and the strength of rebounding.
In the days after 911 a flag raised over ground zero brought meaning to the Star Spangled Banner as a beacon hope amongst rubble. I thought over the songs historic value, and the then current circumstances and the message fell together not nice or neat but in my lap none the less. Things hadn't been perfect or peachy when the US entered war in the early 1800s and they weren't perfect or peachy at the turn of our century but I thought you know as long as old glory still finds her way up and symbolizes the unique liberties of this land then we have the tools to maintain/return/make good the potential and ideals set forth by this country in her making. We live another day and thus have another chance to make things good. What rises from the ashes might just be better than what it replaces ... 200+ years is not a long time there is still an oppertunity to realizes what could make this country great now that's something I can get behind...
