This is an additional salute to July 4th. My two favorite holidays are, July 4th and Thanksgiving. Sunday, in our church, the choir director read the following by Johnny Cash, with the choir singing softly, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
“I walked through a county courthouse square.
On a park bench, an old man was sittin there.
I said, “Your court house is kinda run down.”
He said, “No, it will do for our little town.”
I said, “Your old flag pole kinda leans a little bit.
And that’s a ragged old flag you got hanging on it.”
He said, “Have a seat,” so I sat down.
He said, “Is this your first visit to our little town?”
I said, “I think it is.”
He said, “I don’t like to brag, but we’re kinda proud of that ragged old flag.
You see, it got a little hole in that flag there, when Washington took it across the Delaware.
It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,
Writing, “Oh Say Can You See.”
It got a rip in New Orleans,
With Packingham and Jackson tugging at its seams.
It almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.
It got cut again at Shiloh Hill. There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag.
On Flanders Field in World War One, she took a hit from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War Two,
And hung limp and low by the time that one was through.
She was in Korea, Vietnam, and she went where she was sent, by her Uncle Sam.
The Native Americans, the black, yellow and white,
All shed blood for the Stars and Stripes.
She’s been abused, burned, dishonored, denied and refused,
And the very government for which she stands, has been scandalized throughout the land.
She’s getting threadbare, and she’s wearing kinda thin,
But she’s in pretty good shape for the shape she’s in.
Cause she’s been through the fire before, and she can take a whole lot more.
So we raise her up every morning, and we bring her down slow every night.
We don’t let her touch the ground, and we fold her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag,
Cause I’m mighty proud of “That Rugged Old Flag.”
I hope your Independence Day was full of patriotic thoughts, music, fireworks, picnics, and flag waving. America it in terrible shape, both politically and economically. Hopefully we can clean out the Congress in November, and clean out the White House in 2012, if not before. The undeniable fact of Obama not being born in the US, and being unqualified to be President, is getting more and more coverage, even to front covers of magazines. I’ve seen a copy of his African birth certificate, and his wife said that they went to the place of his birth in Kenya. Is it possible, that for the first time in our history, a sitting President can be removed? If so, we’d have Joe Biden, who may not be too bright, and has a serious case of ’foot in mouth disease,’ but at least he’s an American with no shady background and far left-communist affiliations!