Wayne Messmer: What the national anthem means to me
There is a unique moment for anyone who has been introduced to sing the national anthem. That honor of being handed the microphone, or walking up to the podium to handle this great responsibility is something that every American should have the privilege to experience. For me, it is more than just another song, it is an opportunity to recite the poem, "Defence of Fort M'Henry" written by Francis Scott Key as he was inspired by the brave men who fought to save Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on Sept. 13-14 in the early days of the War of 1812 and the 15-stripe and 15-star flag that survived the vicious night of bombardment.
The prose, first published just more than two years later, tells the heroic actions of patriots who put their newfound country ahead of their own lives, willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that we now, all too frequently, take for granted. The blood that was shed on that proud moment of early America serves as the inspiration for the moment when I am called upon to represent those men and the tens of thousands of others who laid down their lives for us … many generations later, whom they could only imagine.
The melody that we now know as "The Star-Spangled Banner" emanates from John Stafford Smith's "To Anacreon in Heaven," a popular tune that had been used previously by the lawyer/poet. The music carried its challenges then as it does now, covering an octave and a fifth in range … surpassing the average singing voice by a few critical notes on the top or the bottom range. It took many years before "The Star-Spangled Banner" found its proper place in our daily lives. President Woodrow Wilson exercised an executive order in 1916 to approve the "Service Version" of the patriotic piece that found its way into baseball during the 1918 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. Folklore tells of President Wilson's request of the military band to play during the 7th inning stretch, (at a Cubs World Series' home game played at the larger capacity Comiskey Park on the South Side, rather than smaller Weeghman Park, the future Wrigley Field, only to discover that the band had exhausted their repertoire and were forced to play their last remaining tune. Naturally, people stood and the tradition loosely began, although the song did not officially become recognized as our national anthem until a Congressional Resolution was passed and signed by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.
Knowing this history and that, for which it stands, only amplifies the honorable responsibility that is not to be taken lightly as too many others have done and continue to do. I have always felt that this not the time to boast, brag or to call attention to one's self with a grandstanding gesture or an attempt at a grandiose personal interpretation. Doing so, in my opinion is nothing short of blatantly disrespectful. We have all seen our share of showboating in action over the years and I only wish it would stop.
As a son of a WW II veteran, I learned firsthand what this proud song truly represents to the men and women who have worn the uniforms of the five branches of our military then and now. I have walked along the monuments at Arlington National Cemetery and at country graveyards that mark this lives of soldiers and sailors who have served and fallen. I have had the great honor on a number of momentous occasions to sing before millions of people over the years … moments where the national anthem needed to be sung, "the way it's supposed to be sung."
With a count of near 5,000 times of accepting this honor since my first public singing of the national anthem at a Loyola University hockey game nearly 40 years ago, I have never varied from my approach to treating the moment with dignity, respect and pride.
Each and every time I have heard the call, it has been the same motivation to "lead the crowd" in the singing of the anthem. Never should it be taken as an invitation to draw attention away from the words of courage as written by the poet of so long ago.
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O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ••• On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis The Star-Spangled Banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. ••• 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 footsteps' 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. ••• O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation. Blessed with vice'ry 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!