Wicker Promotes National Anthem Project

WICKER PROMOTES NATIONAL ANTHEM PROJECT
By Congressman Roger F. Wicker

April 4, 2005

An education initiative is under way to renew emphasis on the significance and history of our national anthem. The three-year project, called "The Campaign to Restore America's Voice," will focus attention on the song and the dramatic events which led to its creation.

Penned as a poem by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, and put to music soon afterward, the anthem is recognized around the world as a symbol American freedom and democracy. Despite this rich heritage, a recent survey found that many of our citizens are not familiar with the song or its patriotic legacy.

SURPRISING POLL RESULTS

A Harris Interactive Poll of 2,200 men and women aged 18 and over showed that nearly two out of three Americans do not know the words to the national anthem. The same survey found that 38 percent said they did not know the song is entitled, "The Star Spangled Banner." Fewer than 35 percent of the poll participants could identify the song's author.

The National Association for Music Education is heading the effort. The plan includes reacquainting Americans with the events that motivated Francis Scott Key to write his stirring words. A national marketing education campaign will enlist the aid of musicians and professional sports teams to promote the anthem. The group also plans to re-teach the song through school music programs, where 70 percent of Americans say they first learned it and other patriotic songs.

QUESTION FOR EACH NEW GENERATION

On September 14, 1814, Key had been detained by the British on a ship in Baltimore Harbor during a pivotal time in the war. From the deck of that vessel, he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry and began writing the poem on the back of a letter he was carrying. The prose begins with a question, "O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" The fate of our young republic was hanging in the balance that evening, and the author wondered if the flag would still be flying at daybreak. The words convey the triumph Key felt after seeing that American forces had withstood the night-long attack.

The song also ends with a question that inspired citizens when it was written and has resonated throughout our country's 229 years of existence. It asks, "O say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Succeeding generations of Americans have risen to meet challenges at home and abroad to keep our country strong and continue to ensure that the question has an affirmative answer.

The song was performed first in Baltimore on October 19, 1814, and became one of the nation's best loved patriotic songs throughout the 1800s. The military adopted it for ceremonial purposes in the 1890s and designated the tune as the national anthem in 1917. The U.S. Congress passed legislation making "The Star Spangled Banner" the official national anthem, and President Herbert Hoover signed the measure into law on March 3, 1931.

http://www.house.gov/wicker/Anthem.htm