Our national anthem ends with a question. Lady Gaga answered it as best she could.

For all its flaws, the best thing about our national anthem — as we currently sing it — is that it ends with a question: “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave/o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

It’s a tangle of questions, really, about the future: Will our democracy exist tomorrow? Will this land eventually be free to everyone? Are we brave enough to keep working toward that promise? In a modern context, the word “yet” reminds us that American exceptionalism is a lie. There’s still more work to be done.