America The Beautiful

These words spoken to
America The Beautiful
by The US Military Acadamy1966

I was born on July 4th 1776
The Declaration of Independence was my birth certificate
Bloodline of the world run in my veins
For I offered freedom to the oppressed
I am many things in many people
I am the nation
I am 300 million living souls
And ghosts of millions who have died for me
I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere
I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world
I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry
I am Lee and Grant and Abe Lincoln
I am remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor
When freedom called I answered
And I stayed till it was over, over there
I left my heroic dead in Flanders Fields,
On the Rock of Corrigador and on the bloody hills of Korea
I am the Brooklyn Bridge
The wheat fields of Kansas
And the granite hills of Vermont
I am the coal fields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania
The Golden Gate the Grand Canyon
I am Independence Hall the Monitor the Merrimac
I am forest, field, mountain and dessert
I am the quiet villages and the cities that never sleep
I am the ballot dropped in the box
The roar of crowds and the voice of a choir in the cathedral
You see the lights of Christmas in me
And hear the strains of Auld Ang Syne as the calendar turns
Yes I am the nation and these are the things that I am
I was conceived in freedom
And God willing in freedom will spend the rest of my days
May I possess always
The integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled
To remain citadel of freedom
And a beacon of strength to the world
This is my wish, my goal, my prayer 230 years after my birth