4 Min read
What the flag means to me
Those who serve
Final verse of the anthem
Video and audio links of speech
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FULL SPEECH IN AUDIO ON SPOTIFY
VIDEO OF OPENING of SPEECH ON YOUTUBE
VIDEO OF MAIN SPEECH ON YOUTUBE
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The national anthem does not open with a declaration. It opens with a question.
Oh, say can you see?
Francis Scott Key wrote those words from the deck of a British ship in 1814 — unable to see through the smoke and fire of bombardment, searching for proof that the flag still flew over Fort McHenry. What he wrote was not a victory song. It was a question becoming an answer. And when dawn broke, he had it.
There is a fourth and final verse of that anthem that most of us don’t know — one that soldiers carry.
O thus be it ever when FREE MAN SHALL STAND
Between their LOV’D HOME and the WAR’S DESOLATION!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d 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.
That question — is it still there? — is at the heart of what the flag means to those who serve. And it was the spirit animating last Saturday at the historic Roger Sherman Inn in Connecticut, where people gathered to honor the flag and the nation’s 250th, and celebrate the men and women of the armed forces.
In my speech, I shared a conversation that I had with an Ivy League college coach who asked me an unexpected question during a youth tournament. What followed surprised even me. I also spoke about what the flag means not just as symbol but as lived experience for those who wear the cloth of the nation, who swear an oath before the flag to uphold an ideal.
The evening was anchored by people who showed up in service. Captain Philip Alan Gerard, USNR (Ret.) — thirty years of naval service, four deployments, nine thousand hours in the air — served as Master of Ceremonies with grace and distinction. The U.S. Sea Cadets of Dealey Division posted and retired the colors and delivered the three-volley gun salute. Boy Scout Troop 31, led by Frank Federici, performed the Thirteen Folds. Chaplain Brian Vander Heyden of Howard M. Bossa and Peter C. Langenus Post 653, Veterans of Foreign Wars, offered the invocation. These are the people and organizations that make a ceremony more than words.
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The event was produced by Elm Street Events, with books available through Elm Street Books, New Canaan’s independent bookstore. Grateful to both.
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Watch the video at the links above on YouTube or listen to the audio of the entire speech on Spotify.
Exciting news
On Tuesday, July 7 at noon Eastern Time, MyLinh Shattan will appear live on NBC News Daily with anchor Vicky Nguyen, broadcast from 30 Rock in New York City. The segment marks the 50th anniversary of women reporting to West Point — July 7, 1976 — and will be broadcast across all U.S. time zones.
For updates and future events, visit TreeHouseLetter.com/raisingathena.
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