Independence Day - 2020

Have you ever spent the late afternoon
Watching the purple shadows deepen in Arizona desert?
Or seen a herd of Elk plough their way
Through waist deep snow on a cold Colorado dome?
Did you ever see the sun go down in Hawaii
Or seen the stormy waves break over the rock bound coast of Maine?
Or have you ever see an eagle fly up out of the mists of Alaska?
Or a big October moon hanging full over the still Dakato badlands?

Have you ever tasted the gumbo in New Orleans, Bar-B-Que in Carolina
Or the chicken wings in Buffalo?
Have you ever had Brunswick stew in Maken, or cornbread in Burmingham?
Or briskets slow cook over hill country mesquite wood?

Did you ever drink the water from a gurgling branch in Utah
Or, stand on the mountain above El Paso Del Norte
And see the lights twinkling clear over in Mexico?
Did you ever jingle horses in the pre dawn stillness of a perfect Texas day
And watch their shodded hooves kicking up sparks on the volcanic rock?

Or attended a truck line on a foggy Carolina morning
Or heard the distant love song of a lovesick whipperwill
On a pristine Tenneesee late night?
Have you seen the faces on Mount Rushmore or stood at the Vietnam monument?

Have you ever crossed the mighty Mississippi
Or been to the daddy of them all in Cheyenne, Wyoming?
Or seen the mighty Volve run out on the football field on a chilly autumn afternoon?

Did you ever see the Chicago skyline from Lake Shore Drive at night?
Or the New England follage in the fall
Or the summer beauty of the Shanandoah valley
Or Indiana covered with new snow?

Did you ever seen a herd of wild horses running free
Across the empty spaces in Nevada?
Or, caught a walleyed pike out of a cold Wisconsin stream?
Or, marveled at the tall ship docked in the harbor at Baltimore?

Did you ever see the early morning dew sparkling on the blue grass
Or, the wind stir the wheat fields on a hot Kansas afternoon?
Or, driven the lonely stretches of old Route 66?
Have you ever heard the church bells peal their call to worship
On an early Sunday, in some small town in the deep south?

Or pass through the redwood forest just as the sun was going down?
Have you ever been to Boise or Batchlee or Boford or Billings?
Have you ever passed through Sanford or Suffacer San Angelo?
Have you ever seen the falls at Nigara?
The ice palace in Saint Paul?
Or the Gateway to the west?

This then is America!
The land God blesses with everything
And no Effel Tower: no Taj Mahal
No Alps; No Andes
No native hut; nor Royal Palace
Can rival her awesome beauty
Her diverse poplulation, her monolithic majesty
America the Free!
America the mighty!
America the beautiful!
I pledge alligence to the flag of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands
One nation under God indivisible
With liberty and justice for all!

-My Beautiful America, Charlie Daniels 

It seems that every day there's something else threatening our freedom and frowning on anyone who dares to be patriotic. But you know what? I'm proud of my country. I'm proud of our history, as flawed as it may be. And I'm proud to be an American. 

Happy Independence Day - may we never take our freedom forgranted, and maybe always be willing to fight for it. 🇺🇸❤️