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America, America!


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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

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 ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I stood on a bridge tonight and watched fireworks and felt the crashes from the explosions reverberate in my rib cage and the ash falling on my face, and I thought about Francis Scott Key and how it must have torn his heart to wonder if his flag was still there. I thought about how much I love this place and how much it means to me. I thought about how important it is to me that I never lose it.

Let's stop calling ourselves "'Murica" all the time. Let's stop self-ridiculing. Let's stop not caring. Let's stop statically letting things happen.
The fight for liberty is still going on, but this time it's a fight against ourselves.
Let's not shy from the fight anymore. It's time.

May God bless our beautiful, broken, flawed, struggling, fighting, striving country.
God bless the experiment.
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