Flag Day

On this estimable Flag Day, let us pause for a moment and remember the words from the third and fourth verses of our national anthem:

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.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power 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.

That third verse is kind of gruesome, but stands are an apropos reminder of the existential threats available in the world. Then, it was the Brits; today, it is the ideology of islamo-fascism. And the grand fourth, of course, reminds us of the means to victory and peace - a benevolent God, and a just cause. Happy Flag Day!