America the beautiful

This Sunday we ran a compilation from Middle Georgia folks about what makes them red, white and blue. I had a few beers and wrote my own essay.

This being America, no one stopped me. May the idea that is this country echo forever throughout mankind.
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I love our National Anthem, our flag, the opening lines of The Declaration of Independence and the idea that all men are created equal.

I love cold beer and whiskey and the smell of a grill. I like closing my eyes on a Saturday in October and hearing friendship all around me.

I love The Crisis, by Thomas Payne, and Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau.

I love Rock and Roll and The Blues. I love the way that even people who hate each other most days will stand together when needed, like a family that's been insulted.

I know that we can never be conquered. And that, though we may sometimes be our own worst enemies, our better angels will get the best of our demons here in America, my home, my country, this land that I love.

I love the fact that America is not a place so much as an idea.

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It sure as hell does.