America's Hymn

It's been said that there's a lot of ruin in a country.  For the part of this Res Publica that isn't, this song is a prayer.



America The Beautiful (Songwriters: Katharine Lee Bales, Samuel Ward)

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Ray Charles would often open this with the second verse (rather than here, with the third).  It's somewhat melancholy to listen to those lyrics, and think on what's been lost just in my lifetime.

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law! 

I saw those days where this was still true.

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.

- Rudyard Kipling