Francis Hopkinson - My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free

Some times, all that's left is to fix bayonets and charge.

Image via El Wik

The first truly American song - as everyone knows - was Yankee Doodle.  Interestingly, it was composed by an Englishman.  So who then was the first American patriotic composer?

It was Francis Hopkinton, Member of the Continental Congreaa, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Senator, and Federal Judge.  Oh, and designer of our flag (shown here).

 And nobody has heard of him.  As it turns out, he wrote the first non-religious American song that was published.

Hopkinson was a man who did not shirk from strife nor danger, who lived his life as if every moment was a proof of character.  We see these men among us today:

Another open-air memorial in the Washington area is closed and barricaded off: the Iwo Jima Memorial, just across the bridge from D.C. in Rosslyn, Virginia. A source sends along this picture of the barricade set-up at the memorial, which is also called the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial:

...

"I took the picture yesterday afternoon. Those barricades had been there at least a day. People can still walk into the Memorial area, but for many elderly and disabled vets, it is important they be driven and park right next to the statue," the person who took this picture emails.

...

UPDATE: I'm told, "The Syracuse Honor Flight just knocked down the barrier and a couple hundred of them are at the Memorial now."

Here's a picture:

These men took the real Iwo Jima, from a fanatical and dedicated foe who had taken months to dig in their defenses.  They just took the Iwo Jima Memorial from an incompetent, demoralized, petty foe, one who went through the motions of a couple days to "dig in" against their assault.  And 60 years after the fact, those same men swept this aside as if it had never been.

Francis Hopkinson - patriot, Senator, Judge, composer - looks down from the Hereafter and smiles.  The song is so very old but we still hear its strains, yea down to this very day.



Ooh rah, Senator Hopkinson.  And the Syracuse Honor Flight.  And the men who hit the beach with bayonets fixed, those 60 days ago.  It was more than an incompetent Federal Government that tried - futily - to stop you then.  Nothing has changed in 60 years except for the idiocy of your foe.