As I write, it is the eve of Independence Day. America’s iconic national anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner,” originally was penned as a poem on the morning of September 14, 1814 by Francis Scott Key.

Key was inspired to see America’s flag still waving, still standing over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Md, after sustaining 25 hours of relentless British naval bombardment The stanza says: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

Key’s name is honored across the country on monuments, bridges, many public schools, a college auditorium, college halls, a US Navy submarine,and even a minor league baseball team.

His words from the Star-Spangled Banner also inspired our national motto, “In God we trust.”

There was a monument of Francis Scott Key at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that was recently torn down and vandalized. The anarchists who tore down Keys’ monument says he was a slave owner. Yes, like many others of his era, Key was a slave owner. But Key also had freed seven of his slaves in the 1830s; enforced a will that freed 400 slaves from the John Randolph

of Roanoke estate; and was known to have publicly criticized slavery’s cruelties.

Patriotism is enamored in the first words of our Constitution:“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union:…”

Francis Scott Key was not a perfect person, nor was any of our founding fathers or presidents, nor am I or you.

We will celebrate and honor the good and learn from the mistakes. This is how you form a “more perfect Union.”

Last week, Tucker Carlson, a commentator from Fox news, revealed Key’s destroyed monument had “Kill Whitey” spray painted on it. A google search showed no information of any local or federal investigation of this as a “hate crime.” Why is that?

As mob rule appears to be overtaking our country, New Hampshire’s congressional leaders are silent. New Hampshire’s citizens deserve to know where they stand.

NH’s elected officials (Sen.Jeanne Shaheen, Sen,Maggie Hassan, Rep Annie Kuster and Rep Chris Pappas) took an oath “to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic”. The “Live Free or Die” state did not send them to represent us by wearing four dunce hats: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil or think no evil.

We need to know where they stand on many issues and what they will do in this time of crisis of our country.

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