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Anyone who follows me knows that I mentioned Fort McHenry and Baltimore on my page. The flag on my page is the flag flown above the fort when British ships bombarded it during the war of 1812. It's my hometown and I have always loved the story of Baltimore standing in the way...
of the British recapturing America after they burned Washington DC. I have been to Fort McHenry many times. I have stood on its ramparts. And I always loved the Star Spangled Banner because it was written that night when Baltimore saved the Republic.
But...
But...
I never realized that Francis Scott Key was a slave owner. You would think I would know that, considering my close-up, actually went and touched it, relationship with the history of Fort McHenry.
I only know that now because of a story I saw about a statue of Francis Scott Key being taken down by protesters. That made me go actually look it up.
It turns out that's true. While he actually wrote the line "land of the free" in his poem that only became our national anthem in 1931, his family were plantation slave owners.
I'm going to keep the references to Fort McHenry on my page because I still love the story of Fort McHenry, but this has been a learning experience for me. I think more of us should take a good hard look at history... Our real history... And learn something from it.
With all of this in mind, and even though my opinion doesn't really matter, I have to say I'm perfectly okay with the removal of Key's statue. I hope we can start to live up to the ideals written into our founding documents and our national anthem. https://abcnews.go.com/US/protesters-bring-statue-francis-key-scott/story?id=71359718
