The Home of the Brave?

Those that know me, or if you've read some of the latest issues of this blog, you know that I recently began working again.  I have a bit of a commute.  I have about six miles of freeway, then I get off on a city street for six miles, make another left turn, and I'm at my office.  Years ago, I was driving quite a long way all on freeway, and I learned that I needed to calm down, slow down, and take my time during my normal commute.

Yesterday evening, I was driving home, right about five o' clock, and I was merging to the right at my exit off the freeway.  This particular exit has two dedicated exit lanes, or 'exit only' lanes that are actually the two lanes of the toll road that just continue to my exit.  So, you have folks coming off the tollway, merging left, and you have those on the freeway trying to exit at the same time, merging right.  It is no doubt busy at this particular time of day.

I checked my blind spot to make my move right, to get over to the exit lanes.  I like to be in the farthest right exit lane, because it usually moves faster becuase it has less mergers.  Either people are exiting straight from the toll road on the far right lane, or it has those of us (like me) that have successfully merged over through the weave of cars.  Anyway, I merged in behind a vehicle in the 'left' exit lane, and I checked my blind spot for the second lane change.  As I 'blinked' to move over, I got a long honk from a guy beside me; I didn't see him before.  I thought that maybe I had just missed him, felt a little bad, and slowed a little to get out of his way. 

He then proceeded to cut me off, move over two other lanes, accelerate at a fast rate, then slam on his brakes when he reached the point where the exit lanes exited, then cut somebody else off.

I was fairly certain he wasn't in my blind spot when I looked.  He had just been hauling ass, and had to slow down for the car beside the car I was behind.  What a jackass. 

I hope you don't take out anyone else when you take yourself out there, pardner.  It ain't worth it.

Or take out the lady that was on my radio shortly before.  The one that said that they don't play the national anthem at their college, because the Bible says not to.  God doesn't like War Mongers.   She said the National Anthem in this country is against religion.  They didn't believe in War, so they don't sing the National Anthem. 

Then I learned something.  The next lady that called, taught me, or maybe just reminded me.  I'm sure I must have learnded about that bak in skool, when I was a youngen. 

Our National Anthem is actually from a poem.  And when we sing the National Anthem, we only sing the first stanza.  After all, did you remember that the first stanza ends in a Question????

The Home of the Brave?

And how many stanzas are there? 

Who wrote it?


Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, 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 through 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,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in 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!

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 washed 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!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory 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!

Home of the Brave. 

Francis Scott Key wrote it in 1814.  Enjoy the history lesson, too.  I did.