Thoughts from Dr. Joe: Reverence for the flag and its hymn

Each morning at 7 o’clock, John Giacchio and I would unfurl the colors, then attach the clips of the rope to the eyelets embroidered into the blue field of stars. While humming “To the Colors,” we’d raise the flag and salute. At 5 p.m. we’d lower the flag, hum “Retreat,” then fold Old Glory and return her to the principal’s office at Saint Frances of Rome elementary school.

I’ve read many flag stories, and as a Marine, I’ve been in a few myself. Consequently I’m awed by the fact that Sept. 14, 2014 marks the bicentennial of that memorable morning when “The Star-Spangled Banner” was born.

On the evening of Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer and poet, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant as the guest of Adm. Alexander Cochrane. Key was negotiating the release of William Beanes, a prisoner held on board by the British. The British acquiesced; however, both Key and Beanes were confined to the ship that evening since Cochrane feared the men would inform Maj. George Armistead, the American commander of Fort McHenry, of the British scheme of maneuver.

Preparing to defend Fort McHenry, Maj. Armistead commissioned Mary Pickersgill to sew an American flag with 15 stars and stripes. Pickersgill’s two nieces and a slave sewed a flag 30 by 42 feet. Armistead wanted to make a statement to the British that America would stand as a sovereign nation.

For 25 hours and under heavy rain, 19 ships bombed the fort while 5,000 British soldiers prepared to invade Baltimore. Fort McHenry lost four soldiers including a woman and an African American.

At dawn on Sept. 14, Key witnessed a miracle. The flag, which he described as “star-spangled,” flew above the fort. He grabbed a pen and wrote a poem originally titled, “Defense of Fort McHenry,” crafting the words to the tune, “Anacreon in Heaven,” written by John Smith. Smith named the tune after the Greek poet Anacreon, whose songs celebrated wine and women. Key’s poem evolved into “The Star-Spangled Banner” and eventually became the national anthem.

Last week, the La Cañada High concert choir, under the direction of Jeff Brookey, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the school’s fall assembly. It was a beautiful rendition but some knuckleheads were overtly irreverent throughout the performance. During their display of insolence I thought of friends from my 1965 high school class who within a year after our last assembly were killed in Vietnam fighting for the ideals the anthem represents.

In Plato’s “Republic,” the community is implored to instill reverence into the soul of youth. Plato asserts, “There can be no nobler training!” Reverence is not something that you turn on or off depending on the situation. You either have it or you don’t. You either are or you aren’t. Without reverence we have little commitment to society, resulting in aloofness and a lack of awe. Without reverence we do not know how to respect each other and ourselves. Without reverence we wouldn’t even know how to learn reverence.

Let me get back to my story. We are a country of serendipitous connections embedded in traditions that often polarize us. Maj. George Armistead, who defended Fort McHenry, was the uncle of Gen. Lothario Armistead, who led the Confederate charge at Gettysburg. He reached the bloody angle, the Union position, and was cut down. His best friend, Gen. Winfield Hancock, defended the position Armistead’s troops assaulted. Thus the Confederate flag fell, Old Glory remained, and so did the nation.

Edward Harvey’s prose articulates the reverence for “The Star-Spangled Banner” and its synthesis of deeds and symbols. “A moth-eaten rag on a worm eaten pole, doesn’t look likely to stir a man’s soul; Tis the deeds that were done neath the moth-eaten rag when that pole was a staff and the rag was a flag.”
--

JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.