My home schooled children learn poems as part of their curriculum. In fact, they memorize them (an often neglected discipline that well trains the mind). When they’ve got their poems committed to memory, they do a little recital in front of the family. The one my 8 year old is currently working on is called, “The Flag Goes By” (Henry Holcomb Bennett). My son favored me with a sneak preview of the poem the other night at dinner, and upon listening to him recite the stanzas he had already mastered, I couldn’t help thinking about the deep meanings contained in that poem and the drastic contrasts to our current President. During the recitation of “The Flag Goes By”, the images that intruded into my mind . . . images that saddened me as a proud American . . . were the following:

• President Obama during the 2008 campaign with his hands folded neatly over his groin area as the National Anthem is played. All other Democratic candidates appearing on stage with Obama that day put their hands over their hearts.
• Obama refusing to wear a flag pin on his lapel during the presidential campaign of 2008.
• President Obama bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia (either that or making a condescending joke about King Abdullah’s height . . . Obama hates short people!).
• Obama bowing to the emperor of Japan.
• Obama bowing to the leader of a communist nation, China.
• Obama bowing to the mayor of Miami.

In other words, Obama has a habit of showing reverence to commies, tin pot potentates, and mayors who fit nicely into a multicultural theme. Obama unfortunately also has a habit (a very bad one) of merely tolerating our national symbols of flag and anthem. It would do Obama well then to follow the lead of my 8 year old child and study Henry Holcomb Bennett’s poem, “The Flag Goes By.”

Now, I fully realize that memorizing the poem might be too taxing for Obama, who I suspect is not the intellectual giant that the left has crowned him as. So, here’s my suggestion. Why not run “The Flag Goes By” on his teleprompter. And, do it often and daily. It would do President Obama some good to reflect on an America that really is astoundingly exceptional. If he learns this lesson well, then perhaps his hand will gravitate from his groin area to his heart the next time the National Anthem is played in his presence . . . perhaps he will even stand tall the next time he greets another commie or tin pot potentate. Perhaps.

Just in case President Obama has a hard time tracking down Henry Holcomb Bennett’s poem, I’ll go ahead and post it here, assuming the president is an avid reader of RedState (or much more likely, RedState being chock full of pro-life, gun toting, God clinging radicals, is on the watch list of the administration via Homeland Security . . . either way, maybe Obama will get wind of it.):

“The Flag Goes By” by Henry Holcomb Bennett

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
          Hats off!
The flag is passing by!Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
          Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land’s swift increase;
Equal justice, right, and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
Toward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,–all
Live in the colours to stand or fall.

          Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
          Hats off!
The Flag is passing by!

 

President Obama, queue up that teleprompter!