…and the home of the brave.

The first president of the United States of America…I’m thinking…I know, Magic Johnson, then Shaquille O'Neal, followed by Barry Bonds… or was it Di Maggio? Maybe a little basic American History being taught in History Class would help too. Some ACLU lawyer is writing up a salvo because some poor illegal alien might get his feelings hurt if he/she is forced to sing the national anthem, followed by the pledge of allegiance and then a quiet moment of prayer. Hold on just a moment while I set the Way Back machine for 1955 so this will be legal and acceptable, or is it acceptable and then legal?

The National Anthem

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, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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 thro' 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,A
s it fitfully blows, half conceals, half 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 wash'd out their foul footsteps' 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.

O thus be it ever when free-men 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 Pow'r 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!

Note to editor, get that blue editor’s pencil to work on the highlighted words or we will be stuck in court by the ACLU for "separation of church and state". We can't have our youth singing praises that might offend the rest of the world.