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This Land

 With America poised for a big 250th anniversary party, I'd like to offer my thoughts on the verge of the huge star-spangled, ultra patriotic orgasm about to take place.  Rather than go with the explosions that linger far into the night and the one after that and probably the one after that, I offer a rather thrifty 250.

What I am going to do, and what I recommend my fellow Americans do is the following:  Search and find the first verses of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land.  Then, read, sing, or recite them slowly out loud to yourself and anyone else you might be near or able to hold captive.  The key here is slowly.  You might want to practice first.  Read the words over slowly in your mind.  Then, when you think you've read them slow enough, do it again, but even slower.  You don't have to belt them out, but find the volume you feel comfortable with.  The slower the better.  Something might reveal itself much like the details and colors of a developing photograph (analog) 

Guthrie's gift to the American people has an interesting history.  Woody wrote it as a response to "God Bless America," because he felt America, a land that he loved, deserved more than Kate Smith belting out a song that did not recognize enough of his beloved country.

Which reminds me, when it comes to love of country...never let anyone tell you that you do not love your country.  A certain bloviating President is fond of telling people who does and who does not love their country.  What a fool.  To make that assumption is to commit assumicide.  If I have learned anything in almost eight decades on this planet, it is that you can love your country and not love your government.  But wait!  We do love our government most of the time, so much so that we are struggling to preserve it from those who would flagrantly violate the Constitution and blatantly change the historical narrative to suit their own hateful needs.  

So, let's celebrate.  Celebrate the fact that we're still here and in the next few years we will hopefully be reminded that our Constitution works and our union with include all citizens.  Citizens who know that this land is their land...too.

                                




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