My America

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Old Glory (Author Unknown)
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 great institutions of learning.

I stand guard with the greatest military 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 loved, and I am feared!

I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years: Gettysburg, Shilo, Appomattox, San Juan Hill, the trenches of Normandy, Guam, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, in the Persian Gulf, and a score of places long forgotten by all but those who were there with me.

I was there!

I led my soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen.

I followed them and watched over them. They loved me.

I was on a small hill in Iwo Jima.

I was dirty, battle-worn and tired.

But my soldiers cheered me!

And I was proud!

I have been soiled, burned, torn, and trampled on the streets of countries that I have helped set free.

It does not hurt - for I am invincible.

I have been soiled, burned, torn and trampled on the streets of my own country, and when it is by those whom I have served with in battle, it hurts - for I am their own.

But I shall overcome.

For I am strong!

I have slipped the bonds of earth and from my vantagepoint on the moon,

I stand watch over the uncharted new frontiers of space.

I have been a silent witness to all of America's finest hours. But my finest hour comes when I am torn in strips to be used as bandages For healing my wounded comrades on the field of battle; when I fly at half mast to honor my soldiers, my sailors, my airmen, my Marines, and my Coast Guardsmen; and when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving mother, at the graveside of her fallen son or daughter.

I am proud.

My name is "Old Glory" long may I wave, dear God, long may I wave!

"No, Freedom Isn't Free"
(Author unkown)

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

America, Why I Love Her
John Wayne
You ask me why I love her?
Well, give me time, and I'll explain...
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on 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?
Do you look with awe and wonder
at a Massachusetts shore...
Where men who braved a hard new world,
first stepped on Plymouth Rock?
And do you think of them
when you stroll 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 Tetons?
...Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi
roll along Missouri's 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 Grande to Maine...
My heart cries out...
my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her?
... I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.