[Vision2020] Happy Independence Day, Moscow

[Tom Hansen]

"I am an American" - Author Unknown

 

"I AM AN AMERICAN...listen to my words. Listen well, for my country

is a strong country, and my message is a strong message.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and I speak for democracy and the dignity of the 

individual.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my ancestors have given their blood for freedom:

On the green of Lexington and the snow at Valley Forge,

On the walls of Fort Sumter and the fields at Gettysburg,

On the waters of the Marne and in the shadows of the Argonne,

On the beachheads of Salerno and Normandy and the sands of Okinawa,

On the bare, black hills called Pork Chop and Old Baldy and Heartbreak
Ridge, a million

and more of my countrymen have died for freedom.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my country is their eternal monument.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my ancestors have bequeathed to me:

The laughter of a small boy as he watches a circus clown's antics,

The sweet, delicious coldness of the first bite of peppermint ice cream on
the Fourth of

July,

The little tenseness of a baseball crowd as the umpire calls, "Batter Up!"

The high school band's rendition of the "Stars and Stripes Forever," in the
Memorial Day

parade,

The clear, sharp ring of a school bell on a crisp fall morning, These and
many others

things they fought for and left me.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and the fruits of my thought and labor are mine to enjoy.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my happy land is a land of many realms and mansions:

It is a land of Ohio corn and potatoes and pastures,

It is         the realm of hundreds of acres of golden wheat stretching
across flat miles of

Kansas,

It is the land of precision assembly lines in Detroit, It is the realm of
milling cattle

in the stockyards of Chicago, It is the land of glowing skylines of
Pittsburgh and

Birmingham, of San Francisco and New York, And my churches and homes are the
mansions of

heaven. 

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and the love of God has made me free."

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and in my churches and homes everyone worships God in his
own way:

The young Jewish boy saying: "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord is One, "

The Catholic girl praying: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is -with
thee,"

The Protestant boy singing: "A Mighty Fortress is Our God, "Each one
believing and praying

as he must, And all joining in the universal prayer: "Our Father, who art in

Heaven," with the voice in the soul of every human being that cries out to
be free,

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and I believe that America has answered that voice.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my country offers freedom and opportunity such as no
land before

her has ever done:

Freedom to work, as mechanic or farmer, as merchant or truck driver,

Freedom to think, as chemist or lawyer, as doctor or priest,

Freedom to love, as child, as parent, sweetheart, husband, wife,

Freedom to speak, to pray, to read, to argue, to praise, to criticize,

Freedom to live one - or two - hundred million different lives.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and my heritage is of the land and of the spirit, of the
heart and of

the soul.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...and these are my words. Show me a now a country greater
than my

country, a people happier than my people.

 

I AM AN AMERICAN...I speak for democracy and the dignity of the individual.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"America"

By Neil Diamond

 

http://www.tomandrodna.com/America.mp3

 

"Far

We've been traveling far

Without a home

But not without a star

 

Free

Only want to be free

We huddle close

Hang on to a dream

 

On the boats and on the planes

They're coming to America

Never looking back again

They're coming to America

 

Home, don't it seem so far away

Oh, we're traveling light today

In the eye of the storm

In the eye of the storm

 

Home, to a new and a shiny place

Make our bed, and we'll say our grace

Freedom's light burning warm

Freedom's light burning warm

 

Everywhere around the world

They're coming to America

Every time that flag's unfurled

They're coming to America

 

Got a dream to take them there

They're coming to America

Got a dream they've come to share

They're coming to America

 

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

Today, today, today, today, today

 

My country 'tis of thee

Today

Sweet land of liberty

Today

Of thee I sing

Today

Of thee I sing

Today"

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Seeya on the Square, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime."

 

-- Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.

 

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