America, the Beautiful
Lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov’d
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
I really hate this cynical attitude I have, but how exactly are we as a species better because we are independent of Great Britain?
Let’s see… we don’t have health care, we don’t drill for our own oil supply, we spend a huge percentage of our budget on the military, we lost over a million lives fighting over slavery, we had an entire decade of race riots, we practiced genocide on the natives here…
And yeah, why not? We are spending millions of dollars blowing up fireworks, all the time bitching and moaning about the environment… gosh, what could our city have done with the 73k spent on fireworks this year, not to mention all the related costs involved? What exactly are we independent of, anyway?
Wow kcdad! That had to be written under the influence of something. Can’t you mention a single thing you are grateful for because of this nation and people?
Like what? I do hope you will excuse the distinction being made between the people and the government. I do hope you realize that the people have very little voice in our government and the voice you do hear do not speak with the people’s voice.
I am aware of what many people have done in our society… proud??? I am aware of the individual efforts of many people to make this world better…. proud? What sense of pride should I feel… ‘Cause we pay taxes to the same corrupt treasury? ‘Cause we breathe the same air? ‘Cause we live on the same continent? Why pride? Pride is a selfish, egotistical emotion.
I agree with Michelle Obama… the support that people seem to be giving her husband and the entire Democrat party does make me feel proud. Not because he is black or liberal or muslim or lefthanded or whatever… but because people are finally beginning to realize (thanks mainly to people like Ron Paul) that the government of this nation is not our government. It is the government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. That is called fascism.
I realize the Democrats are not any better… but they are not any worse, and they are not in power. Luckily, there are still idealists in the Democrat Party. They have been chased from the Republican Party. If you want to find them, look in The Libertarians, Constitution and other splinter groups.
You do realize that a corporation has greater standing in court and more rights than you as an individual do?
Down with the bourgeoisie! Down with capitalism! Up with central planning!
What we need in the US is governmental central planning to replace GDP components like those evil, selfish, bourgeois corporations which employ the majority of US citizens and which helped make the US the greatest country on earth. That’ll probably be better since unmotivated, uninspired bureaucrats and not selfish, individual businessmen with vision will be the economic engine. Russia proved that, didn’t they?. And now poor, ignorant communist China has allowed capitalism to flourish. Those stupid saps. Soon enough China will have thousands of kcdad’s complaining the people are being trampled on by the bourgeoisie. What will China do then? Jail them, those fascists, er, I mean, commie bastards.
“Pride is a selfish, egotistical emotion.” LOL! Like that is a negative thing. Kcdad, take that hippie BS and stick it up your class conflict.
“”America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov’d
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.”‘
Thank god I live in America. Even with its flaws. Thank you America. You are the best country on earth.