No. 308 - The Star-Spangled Banner

My dad sent me an e-mail that contained a link to a video titled, Marine stuns crowd. I clicked on it and heard a guy who said he was a former Marine sing the fourth stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner. While he was singing the folks around him stood, took off their hats, and put their hands over their hearts. It was touching.

I had never heard the fourth stanza, or the third, or the second, at least to the best of my recollection. I do not recall ever knowing that such additional verses existed. The fourth stanza is:

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved 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!

I particularly like the verse: Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

There are many reasons why our country is in such dire economic conditions. One of the main reasons is the enormous amount of military spending. It is very expensive to have troops stationed in 130 countries around the world. (In case you were wondering, there are a total of 195 countries.) This verse says it all. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. When the cause is just, we should declare war, define exactly what winning means, and then go out and win it with force. Instead, we don't declare war, we don't define what winning means, and we end up occupying countries for decades. And then we scratch our heads and wonder why other countries and other people resent us, even hate us. Don't get me started.

The Star-Spangled Banner was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.