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. Oh! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
This view of our newly-installed flag juxtaposed with the moon reminded me of the obscure second verse of “The Star-spangled Banner” quoted above. Technically the light arises from the solar disc attached to the top of the flag pole. The light allows us to fly the flag through the night, so it can “catch the gleam of the morning’s first beam.”
Setting up a flagpole prominently in our front yard has been a delightful experiment in patriotism and cement. We were proud to have a flag flying on the Fourth of July, but even a bit more proud to have successfully anchored the pole in cement. We were both quite a few ranks below mason apprentice, yet we managed to dig a hole two feet deep and almost that distance across, then fill it with cement, keeping the flag sleeve perfectly vertical in the middle. Sounds less impressive as I describe it.
Almost a week later we received the solar flying saucer in the mail that now shines just under the ball of the flag pole. It gives the flag an ethereal glow, which inspires me when I go out to scoop up the paper at 5:00 a.m. I indulge in the fantasy that the flag has protected our plot of land through the night.
What do the neighbors think when they see a twenty-foot flagpole with a 3’ x 5’ flag centered on the strip of lawn next to our garage? Does it swing us over to the right wing of politics? Does it mean our family has a long tradition of military service? Or is it an excessive display of new-found patriotism?
None of this really pertains to us. I am tempted to place some yard signs nearby, such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Biden 2020,” just to keep the record straight. Patriots come in many colors and shapes, and our shape is probably still under construction. A flag is only part of our patriotism.
Like our front yard flag, the lyrics of “The Star Spangled Banner” are a conglomeration of various politics. The fourth stanza proudly proclaims:
Then conquer we must
For our cause it is just
And this be our motto
In God is our trust.
During the War of 1812 these lyrics made more sense than they do today. We were feeling more paternalistic toward our hemisphere and the Monroe Doctrine was soon to proclaim that European colonization would constitute “the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”[2] We put Europe on notice that the Western Hemisphere was our neighborhood, so keep your colonial hands off it!
The flag has also been subject to many interpretations of the “manifest destiny” of the United States, so we should not be comfortable assigning political motives to those who fly it, even if it is twenty feet high with a telescoping pole. To say it signals pride in the nation that protects us is fair. To say it represents the good, the bad, the ugly of a nation’s history is accurate. To say we accept the idea and the fragile reality of democracy is fair.
What else it means is idle speculation.