…hangs in the air.

We know the song – we know it by heart, but no longer hear the words. Or maybe we’re just not listening to what we’re singing.

…or not singing.

And maybe that’s the problem.

But whenever the Anthem is unfurled, the question which remains unanswered.

Differing opinions are healthy and necessary in a free society:

Welcome to America! (…wear a helmet)

We argue politics in the pew, and religion in the street. Team rivalries divide family and friends, but before kick-off we stand (…or should) shoulder to shoulder…

Red and Blue
Blue and White
White and Black

…united we stand, divided we kneel.

There is no room for competing allegiances or dueling anthems. We must be one flag, one anthem, one nation… under God.

Multiculturalism is not just destructive, it is self-destructive, and a contradiction. A society is defined by its culture.

Of course, the DEI crowd doesn’t necessarily object to a single culture, just so long as it ain’t uniquely American.

But just as the Crayola flag reflects every hue but white (…white men, straight white men), the cultural arsonists set out to torch the ideas and values that made America great – a culture that drew immigrants to America in the first place.

They’d be happy if we all hid in a tunnel.

We make the mistake of believing that our freedoms, having been won, can never be lost. But whatever we fail to pass on to our children, we will never have again.

There was no guarantee that our voyage into self-government would succeed. Or even survive.

By 1812, we were dead body deep in another war with a familiar foe. The Empire had burned our Capital and was on the march again. And the heroes of our revolution were long gone.

As Fort McHenry crumbled under a naval bombardment, Francis Scott Key found himself a British captive. Aboard a prison ship, he peered into the dawn of September 14^th for an answer. And, yes… our flag was still there.

But that wasn’t the question.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?

Level Ground
There will no unity until the closed fist is replaced by an open hand. And no peace until the unrepentant pardon the unforgiven.

The Cry of the Rocks
Truth can be ignored but cannot be made untrue. Truth just is, even if held by just one. One plus God.