POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

12Jun/100

And now, for the third stanza

In previous posts, I covered my favorite stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner.

In honor of today's U.S.-Britain match at the World Cup, I present to you the third stanza:

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 footstep's 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.

No hard feelings, Britain.

For further patriotism, check out a pic of the original broadside with the full lyrics. which has a preface explaining the story behind its composition.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

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7Jun/102

My favorite stanza

I wrote about it in Sing the whole thing, on Memorial Day, and Doug Powers guest-blogging posts video of a man singing the 4th verse to the Star-Spangled Banner.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

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31May/102

Sing the whole thing [UPDATE by Dan]

I usually post this for Independence Day, but the last stanza seems particularly fitting today.

We sing only the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner as our national anthem, and yet, it's odd -- the first stanza of the song is a question - the battle raged on through the night, the light of the battle let Key see the flag... but everything has gone dark, and soon it will be dawn: will the flag still be there?

But the rest of the song answers that question, and then looks to the future.

Isaac Asimov wrote a great essay on the narrative of that song. It's not that long - and neither is the full text of the Star-Spangled Banner. If I find myself having only enough time for one stanza, nowadays I sing the last one:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n - rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto--"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Semper Fi, Grandaddy!

UPDATE: "I am very fortunate." Not as fortunate as we, soldier.

Here's a beautiful Memorial Day video tribute.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

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30Aug/099

The “Reclamation” of Independance

jonathan-trumbull-signing-of-the-declaration-of-independence-large

“WHEN IN THE GENERATIONS  SUCCEEDING the one that pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to usher in the birth of the world’s only truly free nation, Liberty’s Progeny incrementally ceded their birthright to the government conceived and designed to serve a free people, and not be its servant, this generation is awakening to the terrible mistake that we, and our ancestors allowed to happen.  Charged with the terrible knowledge that comes with opened eyes, we now take up the long abdicated duty to rouse our fellow citizens and actively wrest the power and the liberties that have been progressively talked, cajoled, threatened, wheedled, and extorted from us, not only by those who ostensibly served us, but by their supporters and enablers who, by accident or design, saw fit to usurp and disdain such freedoms, that they might be withheld, and where impossible to withhold, might be condemned, until a corrosive contempt for these liberties, wrapped in velvet gloves, might so suffocate the circulation of them that this nation, conceived in liberty and the providence of a wise and benevolent creator, might indeed perish from the earth, plunging the rightful heirs of a proud and noble heritage in the the darkened waters of chaos, despair, and evil that surround them, a dank deluge that even today, other human beings actively seek to escape from in the inspiring embrace of this blessed and free country.

We, the awakened and aware, freely accept the charge that the architects of this republic passed on to us over two centuries before, in the hope that all who partook in the blessings made possible by nation they created would somberly undertake the duties of citizens, and so appropriately train themselves in virtue, and educate themselves in the workings of the precepts and ideals set forth in their foundational documents that they would possess enough wisdom to recognize that not all threats to our freedom would come from without our ranks, the knowledge to recognize that not every chain and shackle menacing us will immediately appear to be what it actually is, and the humilitynot to assume that the ingenuity and innovation that has been the hallmark of American success has been the product of man alone.

To this end, we hereby identify and reclaim our independence from the tools used to slowly enslave a free people and usurp the freedoms that we could not be persuaded to freely give up, or voluntarily suppress the free exercise of on our own…”

This is just the preamble of an amazing document I read over the weekend called, “The Reclamation of Independence”.  I saw linked to at a blog on POWIP’s blogroll, “The H2”.  I assure you that the entire document is just as inspiring, and puts forth, collected and  in neat order, many of the points that American conservatives and libertarians have been speaking about for many years.  Please take a moment to read the whole thing, and feel free to send it on in letter form to everyone you know, or post it on any blogs you may have access to; it is the authors intent that it go viral.  Just like many of the original liberty pamphlets published in the days leading up to the American revolution, this document needs to be distributed, read, and talked about far and wide…

What do you think?

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