I’m a 93-year-old veteran of World War II, having served in the Navy in the Pacific theater until the war’s end. I then became a teacher, coach, assistant principal and an Episcopal priest. I’m writing to you because I have a mission to bring our country back to the patriotism and love of country that carried us through some of our most difficult times.

It is time for us to put aside politics and become citizens united.

In times past, our national anthem would be sung by the children in schools and people attending an event. In recent years, however, we have become accustomed to listening to a performer sing the anthem as we stand mute, which has led to the meaning and the value of the anthem getting lost. We must recapture what has been lost, and become united once again.

As the coronavirus is ebbing and as our precious Memorial Day is nearing, please, let us bring thanks and honor to those who sacrificed so that we could live our lives in freedom. To do so, let us once again sing our national anthem in unison, loudly and proudly. At the ball parks or at other special events, when the anthem is played let us join together and share in singing the anthem in thanks and honor to those who sacrificed all for each and every one of us.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is a poem written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, as the British armada was laying siege to Fort McHenry in Maryland. Key had negotiated with the British to release the prisoners they had captured and were holding in chains in the bowels of their ships. The British said they would do so only if the American flag were to still be flying over Fort McHenry at “dawn’s early light.” While the words in the anthem are a true depiction of what Key observed, they don’t tell the rest of the story – that the flag was still flying at dawn’s early light because the bodies of the wounded and dead soldiers were piled against the flag pole to prevent it from falling, and to keep the flag flying.

The heroes of Fort McHenry did not want to die in vain. They sacrificed themselves so the prisoners could be free.

Please, as we approach Memorial Day, and after, please put aside our differences and unite in honor of those who gave their all so that we could be free; together, let us sing our anthem, loudly and proudly.

Thank you, and God bless America.

(Bill Atkinson lives in Meredith.)