The Pledge of Allegiance ....
I - me, an individual, a committee of one.
Pledge - dedicate all my worldly goods to give without self pity.
Allegiance - my love and devotion.
To the flag - our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Where
she waves, there is respect
because your loyalty has given her
a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody's job.
Of the United - that means we have all come together.
States - individual communities that have united into 50 great states.
Fifty individual
communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all
divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united
to common purpose,
and that's for love of country.
Of America ...
And to the Republic - republic is a state in which sovereign power is
invested in representatives
chosen by the people to govern. And
government is the people and it's from the people to the
leaders,
not from the leaders to the people.
For which it stands, one nation under God - The nation, meaning
"so blessed by God"
Indivisible - incapable of being divided.
With liberty - which is freedom and the right of power to live one's
own life without threats
or fears of some sort of retaliation.
And Justice - the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.
For all - which means, ladies and gentlemen, it's as much your
country as it is mine.
NOTE: These words were spoken by the late Red Skelton on his
television program
as he related the story of his teacher, Mr. Laswell,
who felt his students had come to
think of the Pledge of Allegiance
as merely something to recite in class each day.
When an American says that he loves his country,
he means
not only that he loves the New England hills,
the prairies
glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains,
the great
mountains, and the sea.
He means that he loves an inner air,
an inner light in which freedom lives and in which
a man can draw a breath of self-respect.
~ Author Unknown ~
America ... Why I Love Her ...
recorded by John Wayne
You ask me why I love her,
give me time, I'll explain.
Have you seen a Kansas sunset
or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted down a bayou
down Louisiana way?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting
over San Francisco bay?
Have you heard a Bobwhite calling
in the Carolina pines?
Or heard the bellow of a diesel
in the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you
when you hear her waters roar?
Look with awe and wonder
at a Massachusetts shore.
Where men who braved a hard new world
first stepped on Plymouth Rock.
Do you think of them when you walk along
a New York city dock?
Have you seen a snowflake drifting
in the Rockies way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down
from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she
rushes to the sea?
Or bow your head at Gettysburg
in our struggle to be free?
Have you seen the mighty Teton?
Watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi
roll along Missouri shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan,
when on a winters day
her waters rage along the shore
in a thunderous display?
Does the word Aloha make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief
when you see the surf come roaring
in at Waimea reef?
From Alaska's gold to the Everglades,
from the Rio Grand to Maine,
My heart cries out, my pulse runs fast
the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her,
I have a million reasons why ...
My beautiful America, beneath
Gods wide, wide sky.
Copyright ©1973
DeVere Corporation (ASCAP),
Batjac Music Company (ASCAP)
Words & Music: Liebert, John Mitchum, Howard Barnes
I AM THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I am the flag of the United States of America
My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom.
I am confident.
I am arrogant.
I am proud.
When I am flown with my fellow banners,
my head is
a little higher,
my colors
a little truer.
I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected - and I am feared.
I have fought in every battle of every war
for more
then 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, and Appomattox.
I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of
France, in the Argonne Forest,
Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy, Guam,
Okinawa, Korea and Khe San,
Saigon, Vietnam know me, I was there.
I led my troops, I was dirty, battle worn and tired,
but my soldiers cheered me
And I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets
of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled
on the streets of my country.
And when it's by those whom I've served in battle
it hurts.
But I shall overcome - for I am strong.
I have slipped the bonds of Earth and stood watch
over the uncharted
frontiers of space from my vantage point on the
moon.
I have borne silent witness to all of America's
finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.
When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for
my wounded comrades on
the battlefield,
When I am flown at half-mast to
honor my soldier,
Or when I
lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at
the grave of their fallen
son or daughter, I am proud.
~ Author Unknown ~
The Americans....
This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous
and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
The United States Dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges
this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41%
since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous
and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the
Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger.
Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water
and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war
by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.
None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up
and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris.
I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries in to help.
Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American
communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan. The Truman Policy.
All pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries.
Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios.
You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles.
You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon,
not once, but several times, and safely home again.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age,
it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central
went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?
I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone
and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around.
They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do,
they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.
And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting
in New Orleans this morning that it
was broke.
This year's disasters, with the year less than half-over, have taken it all
... and nobody, but nobody has helped.
First broadcast on June 5, 1973, the late Gordon Sinclair's "The Americans"
is now inspiring a new generation through e-mail and the Internet.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, anti-American sentiment was rampant.
One Canadian radio commentator felt the United States, plagued by economic difficulties
and natural disasters,
deserved more support and respect from its fellow nations.
(c)1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
Freedom's Source
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who's given us freedom to
demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the reporter, who's given us freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who's given us freedom of speech.
It's the soldier, who serves under the flag,
who defends the protesters right to burn he flag.
Isn't it time now to demonstrate that we support our troops?
Were it not for the brave-there'd be no land of the free.
~ Author Unknown ~
God Bless The USA
If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away.
I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God Bless the U.S.A.
From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to L.A.,
There's pride in every American heart and it's time we stand and say:
I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God Bless the U.S.A.
I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God Bless the U.S.A.
~ Lee Greenwood ~
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