This was actually supposed to be funny, I didn't intend to start rants about our government's shortcomings, well-deserved as they are.
Most 'Mericans can't sing all of the
first verse, after all.
I don't know all of the second verse of the National Anthem, but I do know it talks of trying to see if the flag is still waving over Ft. McHenry, and then the flag is seen as the sun rises:
As it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
(la da da, la da da, la da da) 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!
The
third verse of the "Star Spangled Banner" is the one we
ought to sing:
O thus be it ever, when free man shall stand,
Between their loved homes, and the war's desolation,
Blessed with victory and peace, may this ever-blessed land,
Praise the Power that hath made, and preserved 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!
Btw, I know the first two verses of "La Marseillaise"
en française. There may be as many as fifteen verses all told.
But our National Anthem really ought to be "America the Beautiful." Get a recording of Ray Charles singing it, totally awesome.