Add the man who wrote the lyrics to our national anthem to the list of people whose monuments have been desecrated by vandals. The monument to Francis Scott Key in downtown Baltimore was badly defaced last night.

A statue to Francis Scott Key, the writer of the Star Spangled Banner, was defaced overnight in downtown Baltimore, with someone painting “Racist Anthem” on the side of the Bolton Hill monument.

Baltimore Police received a report of the vandalism at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. They are investigating, but have no suspects.

The monument — primarily concrete and marble, but with gold in the base and a gold figure atop — had been tagged with black lettering, but also with what appeared to be splashes of red and black paint.

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key statue disgraced from the sidewalk to the top of its doric columns. Paint still fresh in the air. pic.twitter.com/iL5IshtIbm

— Erick Ferris (@erick_ferris) September 13, 2017

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key statue vandalized. pic.twitter.com/A4AnIRifd0

— Erick Ferris (@erick_ferris) September 13, 2017

Key is a prominent figure in Baltimore history because he penned the words to the anthem while held prisoner on a British warship during the War of 1812. The British fleet was bombarding Fort McHenry from Baltimore Harbor throughout the night and Key was inspired to write his poem by seeing the stars and stripes still flying over the fort in the “dawn’s early light.”

Some people deem the national anthem to be racist because of an enigmatic line in the third stanza which most people have probably never even heard. Historians don’t even agree on the meaning of the line which mentions hirelings and slaves.

On the ground in the area around the monument, words from the third stanza of Key’s poem were painted in black:

No refuge could save, Hireling or slave,
From terror of flight, Or gloom of grave

I’m on record supporting the decisions of some communities to remove or relocate monuments to the Confederacy. I just don’t think it is something we should honor or celebrate. Remember it certainly, but as a vanquished enemy because that’s what it was.  I absolutely don’t agree with mobs of vandals or vigilantes desecrating public monuments of anyone however.

Francis Scott Key wasn’t a Confederate though.

That’s the problem with the Left. They will paint all of American history with the same brush.

It’s a sign of their intellectually bankrupt philosophy that they see history in moral absolutes while peddling moral relativism for today.