Red No. 3 ~ Late Summer 2009
The rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air…
This line from The Star Spangled Banner coupled with a grand fireworks show at the end of a Kane County Cougars baseball game gave me pause. As everyone knows, the national anthem is sung prior to every sporting event in the United States. The lyrics come from “Defense of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, the words of which were set to the tune of a British drinking song, “The Anacreontic Song”.
Key was apparently deeply moved, at the end of the night’s bombardment, that Fort McHenry had not fallen to the will of the British Naval Forces. Forever emblazoned in the minds of Americans, is the imagery of a naval/land battle without the imagery of the destruction and loss of life that surely accompanied this bloody battle. While some report light damage in the face of 1,500 to 1,800 cannon balls fired upon Ft. McHenry by the British in that battle, it must be remembered that history is written by the winners. The original flag that was still waving was, by all accounts, severely damaged by the British barrage.
The Star Spangled Banner and the fireworks show that follows are bookends to a night of drinking and revelry by many fans gathered to witness the game being played on the field; a mock battle of a sort. Victory is claimed by one side or the other. The mock-battle ends when, suddenly, the field of play is peppered with the sound of bombs bursting in air and the acrid odor of gunpowder filling the nostrils. For a long time I wondered what patriotism in the form of the national anthem had to do with a sporting event played between teams of mercenary athletes played before a crowd of doting fans. I don’t wonder any more. The irony no longer escapes me.
The Red No. 3 ~ Late Summer 2009 by Roger Passman, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
