From: TG [anonymous]

To: DRC, DCRD [anonymous]

Subject: Fw: WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 20:16:00 -0400



WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT

On the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, the smoke of a day-long bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry cleared and Francis Scott Key saw the American

Flag still flying proudly and wrote a poem which was called "The Star-Spangled Banner" and which later became the country's national anthem.

Now, almost exactly two hundred years later, the American flag still flies

proudly, along with the flags of the countries of 62 countries whose citizens were among those included among the victims of last week's terrorist attacks against freedom. Here -- "worth thinking about" -- are the words:



"The Star-Spangled Banner"

Oh, 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, now conceals, now discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory

reflected now shines on 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 wiped 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 it is just, And this be our motto: 

"In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave O'er the land of the Free and the home of the brave!



See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557093903/newsscancom/ for a

book written about the Star-Spangled Banner for very young children --

or look for it in your local library. (We donate all revenue from our book

recommendations to adult literacy action programs.)







________________________________________________________________________