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It has been almost 2 months since Colin Kaepernick first protested the National Anthem and more celebrates are taking a stance as well.
S8 formally known as Shawn Stockman, of the legendary group Boyz II Men, understands the message behind the protest and wants to help enlighten others.
S8 starts off singing the National Anthem as we all have sung in grade school and during special events. But shortly after the verse we all know, S8 jumps down to the 3rd verse which gets very dark and unfamiliar.
After hearing the song, I must admit, as a black man it was a little uncomfortable to know that I have been forced to sing a song that wasn’t written for me during a time that my ancestors were still enslaved. It doesn’t matter if your black, white, red, yellow, or purple. We all need to stand up and fight for what is right.
Lyrics :
The Star-Spangled Banner
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d 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 rocket’s 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?
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 – O 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 wash’d out their foul footstep’s 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.
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d 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.
#PoeKnows
