“O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?”
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Johnny Cash wrote “Ragged Old Flag” to “reaffirm faith in the country and the goodness of the American people.”
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“The Stars and Stripes Forever,” written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896, is, by a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, the official National March of the United States of America. But did you know that Sousa wrote lyrics to the piece? Me either. This selection includes that chorus. Click here to read Sousa’s words. (YouTube has some videos with altered wording.)
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[verse 4]
O thus be it ever when freemen 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 preserved 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.