Last week I was in Baltimore for the 32nd Annual Conference of Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) . The city was reaching the culmination of its months-long, city-wide festivities in observance of the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and I was asked to sing it at the GLMA Opening Reception last Thursday, September 11. Though most usually performed at big sporting events,* the intimate setting allowed me to offer a few words before the song. Here’s what I said: If you’ve been outside the hotel at all, you know this city is consumed by the celebration of the bicentennial of the writing of the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It was written in 1814 to commemorate the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812 where US forces were able to resist British forces and successfully defend Fort McHenry, just a few miles from here. That outcome was far from assured, and Francis Scott Key was moved to write about the emotion that the Americans felt when, the morning after the battle, they saw that the American flag was still flying over the fort. The poem’s title was “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” and some years later people began to sing it to the tune of, so I’ve read, an old English drinking song. It became popular enough that, in 1931, Congress made it the National Anthem of the United States. Though often criticized for its military tone and martial imagery, I prefer to hear it as a triumph of hope over despair, of light coming after darkness. Certainly on this day, this 13th anniversary of terrible darkness in this nation, this triumph of survival is especially meaningful. And for myself, coming to this conference, knowing our history as LGBT persons, I know that I have been on my own journey from darkness into light. And I suspect that that is true for pretty much everyone here. So over these next few days together, lets take the light we receive from one another back to those at home who are own their own journeys and hold in our hearts those who were taken from us 13 years ago. With some trepidation and with great humility, it is a deep honor to offer this to you: O! 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 through 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 through 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? *Here is a link to my favorite sporting event recording of the song, by my good friend, Rick Desloge. His delivery is impeccable, and his diction is clear, and his genuine emotion is unmistakable. https://youtube/watch?v=G4wVugpqiBo
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:50:32 +0000
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