"Oh say can you see?  By the darned early light...what so proudly we hail..."  "What? Whoa whoa whooooooooooa there sparky."  I gripped my forehead and suppressed a giggle.  Tanisha stopped singing.  She was an extraordinary quick-witted and bright eight year old I had been working with during my summer at PS 110 in the Bronx during the summer of 2000.  "Wanna hit me with that one again genius?"  I said after I composed myself.  "What?  I'm singing the national anthen."  "The national anthen?"  "Hang on, come here..."I started giggling, I couldn't help it.  She started giggling too.  Tanisha knew she didn't know the words to the song and the comedy of the moment I remember to this day.  The outrage, that our children don't know their own history is appalling and is the subject of this remembrance.

I sat down, grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the lyrics and handed them back to her.  "Okay, now try this.  If you get stuck on a word, stop and we'll fix it okay?"  She nodded with excitement and took the paper out of my hand and ran back to the head of the class to start again.  I put it to her on this footing so that she if she did make a mistake, it wouldn't feel like a failure and we could fix it.  This little girl needed a victory.  She needed many victories.  

Now the other children huddled around her.  They all wanted to sing.  They all knew the tune but did not know the lyrics nor did they know the story of the battle and the garrison flag that inspired the song.  So I told them.  And how the heck did I know?  I'll tell you later.  I asked the kids to please stop mangling the tune and sit down so we could have rehearsal.   

"Okay, so everybody sit down and I'll tell you this story about this guy.  This guy was named, Francis Scott Key.  Now, he was a lawyer and he lived a long time ago.  

"Was he married?  Did he have kids?"  Simon asked.  "Yep, as a matter of fact, he did.  He had boys and girls and his wife's name was Mary.  Any other questions or can I go on?"  Silence. (Good.)  "So anyway, a long time ago like in oh...hmmm what year was it?  Oh yeah, the year was 1812.  That was a long time ago and at that time Francis and his family lived in Georgetown which was really close to Washington DC where the President lived and --

"Which President?" Simon asked.  "Shut up will yah?" Tanisha blurted out.  "Let Miss Jackie finish the story!"  

"Hey, c'mon now -- not nice." I said. "It's an honest question.  It was James Madison.  James and his wife, Dolly were living at the White House when the British came back into Chesapeake Bay and set the Capitol and The White House on fire.  So they left town.  Now, Francis found out that his friend, who was a doctor, had been taken prisoner by the British and Francis was called to defend his friend in court to free him.  So Francis left his family and traveled north to speak to the British and fight for his friend's release but the British would not release his friend and now Francis knew there was something going on since the British would not let him travel to even see his friend.  The reason that the British would not let Francis go was because they were secretly planning to attack the garrison, Fort McHenry in Baltimore and they thought, Francis might warn the Americans at Fort McHenry."  

Well early the next morning the battle began.  The British fired their canons and guns on Fort McHenry.  This went on all day and then into the night --  and all night long -- boom, boom, boom, on and on and Francis could do nothing but watch.  And he'd look and look and everytime a bomb went off the explosion would light up the sky and he could just barely make out the outline of Fort McHenry and the huge garrison flag that flew over the fort.

 -TO BE CONTINUED - 

 

On Sept. 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key peered through clearing smoke to see an enormous flag flying proudly after a 25-hour British bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry. Key was inspired to write a poem, which was later set to music. Even before "The Star-Spangled Banner" became our national anthem, it helped transform the garrison flag with the same name into a major national symbol of patriotism and identity. The flag has had a colorful history, from its origins in a government contract through its sojourn with several generations of a Baltimore family to its eventual donation to the Smithsonian Institution.

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb 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 wash'd 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.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd 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 preserv'd 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.