Before all thoughts of the recent celebration of our nation’s independence fade away, it’s worth recalling that our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” poses two questions but answers only the first, leaving the second for each generation to wrestle with.

You may be surprised to learn about the questions, because the song is never sung in a questioning, challenging way; instead, it’s broadly nationalistic, even jingoistic.  (And you may be surprised to learn that the man who sang the praises of  ‘the land of the free’ was a slave owner.  More about that later.)

I’ve seen data that two-thirds of Americans do know the words to our National Anthem, but perhaps you remember the first four lines, the ones that pose the first question: 

O, say can you see by the dawn’s early light 

What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight 

O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming? 

In other words, the song’s writer, Francis Scott Key, is asking whether our flag survived the night-long bombardment of Fort McHenry in what is known as the Battle of Baltimore in September, 1814, toward the end of the War of 1812. 

Key, a well-known 34-year-old Washington, D.C., lawyer and poet, actually witnessed the battle from a British ship.  “The British had captured Washington and taken William Beanes, a physician, prisoner. They were holding him aboard a ship in their fleet off the Baltimore shore. Friends of Beanes persuaded Key to negotiate his release. Key went out to the British fleet and succeeded in gaining Beanes’ release but, because the British planned to attack Baltimore at that time, both were detained. During the night of Sept. 13-14, Key watched the bombardment of Baltimore from the deck of a British ship. Although rain obscured the fort during the night, at daybreak he could see the American flag still flying from Fort McHenry. The fort still stood after the British had fired some 1,800 bombs, rockets and shells at it, about 400 of them landing inside. Four defenders were killed and 24 wounded. Key drafted the words of a poem on an envelope. The American detainees were sent ashore, the British fleet withdrew, and Key finished the poem and made a good copy of it in a Baltimore hotel the next day.” 

It was still flying, Key’s next couplet assures us:

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

However, Key then poses a second question–critical then and perhaps even more so today–in the last two lines of the first stanza:

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

Most of us do not think of it as a question, probably because the performers who lead us in song never present it as a matter of doubt. We sing it, loudly and proudly, telling the world that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. But Key wrote it as a question, not an exclamation. So let’s ask Key’s question–but about the America we live in now.

Is it accurate to describe America as ‘the land of the free’ when 27.3% of Black, non-Hispanic children, 22.4% of Hispanic children, and 8.8% of white children are growing up in poverty? Is everyone free in ‘the land of the free’ when the top 10% of households hold 67% of wealth, while the bottom 50% possess only 3%? Are we all free when white families have six times the average wealth of Black families and Hispanic families?

How free are we when politicians in dozens of states have maneuvered to keep groups of people from voting, when millions of college graduates are in debt, and when millions more leave college without a diploma but with a heavy debt burden?

Are we truly ‘the land of the free’ when millions of Americans are in thrall to political leaders who celebrate the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol?  Those duplicitous men and women seem ignorant of the fact that the January 6th insurrection was only the second such attack in our nation’s entire history, the British having captured Washington during the War of 1812. 

Can we call America ‘the land of the brave’ when we no longer call on our young people to serve but rely instead on a professional military–the brave men and women whom our leaders send, over and over and over, to serve tours of duty in hostile environments but then fail to provide for when they return home–while most of the rest of us happily ‘thank them for their service’ by singing our National Anthem?

I suggest we think about how we seem to be losing what we prize. Is the America envisioned in ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ slipping away because we lack the lift of a driving dream?  Because we ask almost nothing of our young people…and very little of ourselves?

Could it be time to revive the idea of national service and reinstate the military draft?  What if all young people–men and women–were obligated to give two years of their lives in service to our country? Serving in the military should be just one of a menu of options. In return, we taxpayers would commit to paying for two years of post-secondary education or training for young people after they serve.  National service would be a great leveler, because no one could avoid dealing with people different from themselves.

Let’s also encourage the study of ‘The Star–Spangled Banner’ in high school, because it is, after all, an important primary document of our nation. What does it mean that Key was an abolitionist who owned slaves, a man who professed to hate slavery but did nothing of consequence to end it?  The man who extolled ‘the land of the free’ owned eight slaves when he died in 1843, but throughout his life he fought in court to free other slaves, and at one point did free six or seven of his own slaves.  Inquiring into the intent of “The Star-Spangled Banner” could lead to fascinating discussions about how we have chosen to interpret our nation’s principles (not to mention how a mark of punctuation can make a significant difference in meaning, as in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.) 

Living in the land of the free should not be a free ride, nor should patriotism be an empty word.  We would do well to heed JFK’s important advice: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

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It’s worth noting that Key wrote three more stanzas, none of which ends with a question. One is ambiguous, the others proudly patriotic.  Here’s the end of the fourth and final stanza:

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.