Waving the Banner

It's great to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in church on the actual Fourth of July. This doesn't happen every year. I have the whole thing memorized, so I stand and sing with gusto. (And with apologies to anyone standing in front of me.) My only regret is that I miss the third verse that was taken out of the hymn books twenty-five years ago. It was probably deemed too violent and bloody, but, hey! That's what revolutions are about.

Also motherhood, at it's early stages.

The early years of my experience in motherhood are why I love "The Star-Spangled Banner" so much, and why I have the whole thing memorized.

But family life isn't meant to be a battlefield, actually. We usually think about war as something "out there," removed from us.

When being at home, or with our closest family members, becomes a life-or-death situation, something is terribly wrong.

Two tiny Utah children recently lost their battles for their lives. Behind the closed doors of their parents' homes, they were wounded, tortured, and killed. Both were mere toddlers, having what the courts like to now call "parent time." Both were away from their custodial parents who had their best interests at heart. In both cases, the custodial parents knew that the child was not safe during "parent time" with the other parent, but were helpless against power of the law. Both "other" parents were creating new families with very violent partners.

Both of these stories could have been different if the custodial parents had had more support--from the courts, from the community, from the law.

I love America. We've come a long way. Nowadays, I can hear even women who rightfully think themselves anti-feminists express gratitude for the privilege of voting. Child murderers in Utah can now be charged with murder, whereas a few years ago, the worst charges they could get were for child abuse crimes.

We also sang, "America, the Beautiful" today. As the line, "God mend thine every flaw" passed my lips, my heart sang a prayer for this particular flaw that still exists in America's court system, and for better protection for our tiniest, most vulnerable, citizens--from the "terror of flight," "havoc of war," and "gloom of the grave," among those trusted (not by them nor those closest to them, but by the court system) to protect and care for them. "Then conquer we must, for 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."