When was the last time you went to a sporting event of any kind? When was the last time you got there early enough to see the American flag and to hear "The Star Spangled Banner" performed before the start of the game? If you can't remember, you might even be asking yourself right now, "What is The Star Spangled Banner?"

As early as 1897, The Star Spangled Banner was played at Major League Baseball games. During World War I The Star Spangled Banner was played regularly during the seventh inning stretch and later became routine at the beginning of each game. Baseball set a trend that has dispersed through all major sporting events in the United States with the national anthem being played before the beginning of each event. In 1931the song was finally adopted as the anthem of the United States.

Various renditions of the anthem are performed at every major sporting event in the United States, but it is at the lower, local sporting events that have gotten most of my attention. At many of the high school football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc. games that are played here on the Western Slope there is usually a musical tape of the anthem played or the high school's band will play the anthem before the game. And while most in attendance will stand, remove their caps, and put their hands over the hearts while observing the flag, rarely if not ever do I perceive anyone within my auditory range singing along with the music. This causes me to ask the question, "Oh, say, can you sing?"

 Why is it that people don't join in and sing along with the national anthem? Is it because we take our freedom as citizens of the greatest nation in the world for granted? Do we not care for our country's rich history? Or is it because we don't even know the lyrics to the anthem? For those who need assistance I have included a copy of the lyrics below.

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 watched, 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?

This is the first of the four verses in this hymn. It's all we need to know in order for us to show our pride to be Americans. In a time of war and political difference, it is time for each of us to set our differences in opinion aside and to sing! Sing quietly, sing loudly, sing beautifully, or sing off tune. It makes no matter how you sound because when those words leave your lips, you are expressing to everyone within your perimiter that you care! You are in essence saying, "I'm an American, I love this land, and I am proud of it!"