Why We Stand for the National Anthem

Although the "National Anthem" is called "The Star Spangled Banner", we are not standing to  honor and respect the flag itself.    We are standing with those who have fought to keep that banner flying.

Today we tend to think of flags as primarily decorative items.   In 1814 the flag was an essential communications device on the battlefield.  

The flag flying above a fort demonstrated which army controlled it.  When an army captured  a fort it took down the enemy's flag and raised its own flag.   If the occupants of  a fort lowered their flag, "struck their colors", it meant that they were surrendering.

When Francis Scott Key saw that the flag was still flying over Ft. McHenry he knew the men in the fort had refused to be intimidated by the British artillery barrage.   His poem celebrated the courage of the men in the fort rather than the flag itself.

The use of the flag to demonstrate a resolve to stand up to America's enemies has continued into this century.  This spirit was demonstrated in World War II when the Marines who took Iwo Jima quickly raised the flag to let those at sea know they were established on the island.   New York city firefighters showed they were not defeated when they erected a flag at Ground Zero shortly after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Those who disrespect the military by attacking the national anthem demonstrate a lack of gratitude for what the military has done to reduce racism.  360,000 U.S. army soldiers, including 40,000 black, died in the Civil War which ended slavery.  After WWII President Harry Truman integrated the military to show that black men and white men could live together and work together.  President Dwight Eisenhower used paratroopers in Little Rock to insure compliance with a federal court order to desegregate the schools.