JOHN!, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I hope you have been able to relax a little bit and that you and your family are enjoying time together during this special season.
As I think about Christmas and the New Year, I wanted to write to you tonight about a song that was written on Christmas as a traveler made his way back across the Atlantic Ocean from a European vacation.
The Year? 1896. The traveler? John Philip Sousa. The song? "Stars and Stripes Forever," which became America's National March 91 years later while Ronald Reagan was President in 1987.
Sousa indicated that, "The notes for 'Stars and Stripes Forever' were born out of homesickness and fond memories of his time as the Marine Band's leader." You can listen to and see a great version of the song by going here.
We often hear the song as an instrumental, but did you know there are words to the song? In the U.S. Army version linked below, at the very end they sing:
Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let tyrants remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
I don't know about you, but I feel that many of our freedoms have been abridged recently.
I am looking forward to President Trump's Inauguration where we can once again work effectively toward freedom from crime, freedom from over-taxation, freedom from over-regulation, and a return to energy freedom.
My God Bless you and your family during this Christmas Season.
Sincerely from my family to yours,
Neil
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