National Anthem Day

So MENC is sponsoring (along with Laura Bush, members of Congress, and corporate sponsors) The National Anthem Project, an attempt to promote the teaching of the Star-Spangled Banner to American children. The day they've chosen to make a big deal about it is September 14, the anniversary of the day Francis Scott Key wrote the words.

But isn't MENC a music education organization? Why the anniversary of the words and not the music? The composer of the tune, John Stafford Smith, isn't even mentioned on the project's website. I can understand why the politicians care more about the words, and anyway Smith was an Englishman; it's always been an embarrassment that the national anthem of the United States was written by a subject of our longtime enemy. But I would hope for more attention to music from a music organization.