Francis Scott Key commemorated the Sept. 14, 1814, U.S. victory over British forces in defense of Fort McHenry in Baltimore with an immortal poem soon given voice set to music as "The Star-Spangled Banner," our national anthem.
The battle was part of the War of 1812, which pitted American colonies that had won independence in 1783 against Great Britain in renewed conflicts over trade barriers with Europe and impressment of American merchant sailors by the Royal Navy to fill out the crews of its own chronically undermanned warships.
The British Fort McHenry attack and successful resistance took place a month after British soldiers had set fire to the Washington Capitol building and White House.
Key, who witnessed the British bombardment, was inspired to see the broad stripes and bright stars of our flag proudly waving throughout that perilous fight and gallantly streaming into dawn's early light as a symbol of American strength and brave determination to protect freedoms from tyranny.
Many of us — in fact, most of us — grew up honoring that flag as a sacred symbolic tribute to countless other brave souls who fought valiantly and sacrificed dearly to protect precious, fragile liberties we all-to-frequently take for granted.
No day on our annual American calendar centers more upon this tribute to flag and defense of freedoms than July Fourth.
Yes, and it is also a time to come together as families, friends, neighbors, and broader communities as gratefully fortunate citizens with a shared national identity often referred to as "patriotism."
That unifying and empowering spirit of national patriotism symbolized by flag and fireworks is now dangerously under attack as never before.
Unlike the assault on our national capitol and Fort McHenry, this greatest threat comes not from powerful foreign armies, but rather, from stealthy agents who are set upon dividing us and turning us against one another from within.
We have recently witnessed neo-Marxist ideology infest structures of all key institutions, ranging from K-12 schools and universities to mass media and popular entertainment, to major corporations, to government, and — clearly foremost — to the Democratic Party.
This petulance, which has collapsed and impoverished civilizations everywhere it has been tried, is rapidly gnawing away timbers of our culture as the anthesis of the true American heritage, which views members of shared communities as embodiments of both common and uniquely distinct strengths, challenges, and priorities.
The American "can-do" spirit that rewards those who work harder, think smarter, and take worthwhile risks has been subverted by a culture in which meritocracy based upon performance is supplanted by a "matrixocracy" ideology of entitlement.
Whereas the U.S. Constitution guarantees equality of opportunity, not equity of outcomes, this divide-and-conquer strategy attempts to politically fractionate America's diverse citizenry into warring stereotypic racial and gender camps to disunite galvanizing civil principles.
The body politic of our Democratic Republic has drifted far afield from the Madisonian constitutional moorings of check and balance controls by three separate, co-equal branches to an imperial federal executive that rules through edicts, guidance directives, and appointed publicly unaccountable agency bureaucrats — such as the Environmental Protection Agency, FBI/Department of Justice, and the Department of Education.
This rule by executive fiat is occurring in direct conflict with the 10th Amendment of that foundational Constitution ratified on Dec. 15, 1791, which clearly states that any powers not specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people, i.e., voting citizens, at large.
Despite escalating lawlessness, constitutional Second Amendment rights to own firearms for defense of person and property ratified on that same date are under increasing assault as well.
As stated, "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
As posited by American Founding Father George Mason, "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials."
The U.S. Supreme Court has concurred in a 2008 case, District of Columbia v. Heller, that this is an individual right unrelated to one's service in a militia, which extends to traditionally lawful purposes such as protection of property and self-defense.
And whereas vital federal responsibilities to provide safeguards from terrorism and crime require secure borders, the very notion of American sovereignty is being called into question by purveyors of globalist agendas.
According to the U.S. House Budget Committee, as of January more than 6.7 million unvetted illegal immigrants and over 1.7 million got aways had crossed America's southern border since President Joe Biden took office — along with 50,000 pounds of fentanyl that has already killed an estimated 270,000 people.
Meanwhile, we also continue to witness the chilling spectacle of a world-envied American justice system devolve into a banana republic lawfare state where agencies of a prevailing party seek to indict, disqualify, bankrupt, and imprison its leading presidential opponent.
We can ill afford to allow such hostile, destructive, and divisive Marxist influences to destroy our union from within.
Instead, let's be mindful to appreciate and perpetuate hard-fought freedoms and responsibilities inherited from previous patriotic generations commemorated on anniversaries of America's first official birthday on July 4, 1776; the pivotal victory at Fort McHenry; and tragically numerous costly wars since.
Is America still the most prosperous, generous, strongest, freest, and, yes, fairest nation on Earth?
And, O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and home of the brave?
Gratefully, yes.