It started during the War of 1812. The United States was at war with Great Britian. Major George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, was preparing for an attack by the British. He ordered two flags from Baltimore flag maker Mary Young Pickersgill. He specified that one flag be made, “so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance.” The two flags cost $405.90. That’s $5,037 in today’s dollars. On September 12, 1814, 5,000 British soldiers and 19 ships attacked Baltimore. On the night of the 13th, they started bombing Fort McHenry. It went on for 25 hours. On the morning of the 14th, the large flag was still flying. Francis Scott Key was being held on a British ship on the Patapsco River. When he saw the flag still waving, he was inspired to write, “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” It was later set to music and re-titled “The Star Spangled Banner”. But it took awhile to catch on.
The song wasn’t designated as the national anthem by Congress until 1931. The Digital Polarization Initiative is a student run project which allows university students to investigate questions of truth. They found that after the Civil War, the anthem remained the unofficial anthem of the military, but people weren’t standing. The research found Senator Julius Burrows implored an audience to stand during the anthem at the 1891 graduation ceremony at West Point. The tradition of standing at sporting events can be traced to the 1918 World Series. The series was almost canceled because of World War I. But it went ahead, and the anthem was played during the seventh inning stretch. The players and the fans all stood and sang along. The playing and standing during the national anthem became a permenant fixture at sporting events after World War II. That brings us to today.
The flag and anthem symbolize different things to everyone. Freedom. Country. Honor. Patriotism. Pride. Loyalty. It has lately become a symbol of division. African American NFL players are using the occasion to protest what they see as social injustice and unfair treatment by law enforcement during one of the most devisive periods in our history. There has been a backlash and outrage by people, led by the president who called these players S.O.B.s who should be fired, who think these players are being disrespectful and don’t have the right to express their grievances in this way. Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, wrote this is his 1972 autobiography, “As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag: I know that I am a black man in a white world.” Maybe we haven’t made as much progress as we would like to think.
We all have the right to express ourselves peacefully. We don’t have to like the actions and opinions of others, but we have to respect them. The reaction to this expression symbolizes where we are as a nation. Many of us are intolerant and even afraid of people who don’t agree with us. Maybe we should pay closer attention to the words we sing, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Those words and that flag tell us we have the precious gift of freedom to disagree, and we should be brave enough to listen to each other.
Well said. It is as much more about the first amendment and free speech than it is about patriotism. Difficult to pledge or stand for something that has not always treated one well. Dissent is one of our strengths.