A friend posted this videoclip on my facebook page - it is of some "Pastor Rutherford" telling "The story behind the National Anthem." I watched it. . .and was astounded and shocked at the number of blatant fabrications put into this story - AND - how the "American Christian" was woven into it as some kind of mythical person. According to this man, the British had hundreds of warships ready to bombard "Fort Henry," which wasn't "predominantly a military facility" but harboring "women and children" and America was still made up of "colonies" instead of being a nation for over 30 years.
Some of the comments on this video are even more disturbing - the weeping, etc. . .and of course any comments are screened (apparently to protect any questioning of the historical inaccuracy of this outrageous fabrication). According to Pastor Rutherford, the flag at Fort McHenry was hit numerous times, the flagpole was broken innumerable times, and the flag remained flying because American soldiers physically held the pole up - and as each one of them perished during the British attack, they were replaced by more American "Christian" patriots who held the flag up. . .and so on. Well, I don't know if that part is true or not, but so many of the other things he said leading up to that point were such fabrications that I was just astounded at the story. Worse, I cannot believe that so many Americans would post comments weeping over that story (because they claim they never "heard" this "true" story before) and that their public school education failed them for not presenting this story (apparently) in this manner.
Now I learned about the War of 1812 when I was in school and I learned about the origin of the national anthem and knew who Francis Scott Key was. . .but please. . .someone tell me if I'm just overreacting to this "story behind the National Anthem" or if this is just another sign of revisionist nonsense:
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwa-lSVqA1MMy question is. . .what exactly is the purpose of fabricating reality? Are Americans unable to be patriotic unless we are deliberately and repeatedly lied to? Are we unable to love our country unless we manufacture some superhuman stories because the truth isn't glorious enough on its own? And how patriotic is it to care more about getting fed fabrications than reality?