It is amazing to me that the critics of America’s greatness fail to see the irony in millions of immigrants entering our country yearly for “refuge” and “asylum”.
More amazing that they fail to see the madness of permitting many more millions to enter illegally, many of whom are criminals,, possibly terrorists, and the majority taxing our social safety net in a way that is patently unsustainable.
Remember the Cloward and Piven plan. Even though bad ideas from the past persist, their consequences are imminent. The system is currently in the late stages of overload, and chaos will ensue when it collapses. Be prepared.
Maybe overpopulation has made them less picky. When the geese started invading Georgia and Florida I read that it was all golf courses. To the point where people needed bigger cleats on their golf shoes because there really isn't much that's slicker than goose shit. Ornithologists said the fairway grass on golf courses is very sweet so the geese were attracted to it.
Many Haitians have been living for months at Boston's Logan Airport. Just camped out on the floor at the international terminal, complete with air mattresses. Earlier this year state and local officials kicked locals, most of them minorities, out of their community center in Roxbury so that the Haitians could be housed there until "other" housing could be found for them.
I often point that out when the hateful left portrays the US as an oppressive, racist, police state. To them I say, "If that is true how come millions of people risk death to enter illegally to this police state shit hole?"
During the cold war the left's communist pals built walls to keep people in not out.
I remember learning the words when I was in grade school. This would be about 70 years ago. We would all stand with our classmates in rows and the principal, Miss Graham, would talk with us each morning. There was the pledge of allegiance—I remember when “under God” was added—announcements, and usually a patriotic song or two. Maybe even a Christmas carol. And then on to the tender mercies, or at least bare tolerance of our teachers.
But the words to America the Beautiful, like the words to The Star Spangled Banner were hollow to us for years. If that was discussed in the morning, I don’t recall it, but I was just a very callow kid then. Words were sounds without much meaning. It wasn’t until adulthood, when I actually thought about the songs, that they made sense to me. And it wasn’t until a trip to Arizona that I saw “spacious skies.” Purple mountains I got skiing, but wide open spaces—the negatives of cities—had to wait. I didn’t see DC until I was driving with my dad from New Orleans to Boston for me to start college. Alabaster was poetic license for white marble. Heavy, substantial marble undimmed by tears talks to the ideal of justice being rational and fairly administered; logic alone would dictate the actions and legislation coming out of the “alabaster cities.” I doubt it was ever thus since maybe 1850 or so, but we’re talking Platonic ideals, not cold, messy reality.
A few years ago, a leftist friend was going on about how bad America is, that even our national anthem is about war. She had no idea that it was about a war that we fought as a war of independence 2.0 . If she ever heard of the War of 1812, she didn’t seem to recall it. I pointed out what it all meant, maybe not very gently, and recited the final stanza to her. The couplet
O, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s devastation…
is the distilled definition of bravery.
Might be useful, or at least interesting to see whether parsing these two well-known, but apparently poorly understood, poems might change some students’ attitudes about the country.
It isn't that our Leftist fools misunderstand history so much as they pervert it and misuse it to glorify the madness and murder of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela and China, while denigrating the beauty and goodness of America.
You mean we can't reason with people who proudly wear images of a mass murderer on hats and tee shirts and fly the flag of a terrorist organization intent on genocide?
Most Leftists do seem to think the glorious French Revolution ended with the death of the king, and then there were unicorns. The whole ugly mess that ended with Napoleon trampling Europe isn't really taught in schools.
Just as they continually glorify leftist revolutions. Le Miz, anyone? And then what? Our Revolution succeeded precisely because it was a conservative revolution to restore the rule of law and the rights of man.
She wouldn’t know the French Revolution from French bread. But that doesn’t stop her from having strong opinions. They’re just ill-informed ones. Unfortunately, she also votes.
As for people not understanding SSB, ask the next 25 people you come across what it's about. Even just what ~war~ it’s about. I’ll give you a buck for every one that knows the answer. No cheating!
I think of the quoted couplet as the 3rd of four verses. (There for some reason appears to be no Standard, which is strange for an Offishul Song.) There are some songs that leave me a blubbering mess; being one of those rare tenors, it is well that I know them well. Yeah the Hallelujah Chorus. But also The Anthem and the subject work. And the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (which I will not bowdlerize)
A beautiful poem, that recognizes the incredible gift this country is. Incredible natural resources - not as plentiful as Russia (though only a smallpox outbreak kept Canada from being part of the US) but the physical isolation makes up for that. Incredible beauty. Every environment type there is except tropical rainforest. We even have deep natural ties to the place many of us originated from thanks to the oldest mountain range in the world, which ran from Georgia to Scotland when there was only one continent. And also the gift of a nation that has never known a monarch - the only such nation in history at the time. And two founding documents that are still unrivaled.
It's sad that so many people misunderstand American Exceptionalism now. It isn't that we're better than everyone else. It's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been.
There's nothing wrong with progressivism. It requires conservatism, reactionaries, to reel it back in when it goes bad (eugenics, prohibition, wokeism) but it can be a powerful force for good (abolition, enfranchisement of women, the civil rights movement). You can determine if a progressive movement is good or bad very easily. Is it promoted by people who love this country, or by people who hate it? Does it intend to bring us closer to the ideals we started with, make one more step toward becoming that shining city on a hill, or is it intended to destroy those ideals with selfishness and hate?
It's pretty clear what kind of progressives we have now. We'd all be better off if they read Bates instead of Marx.
“It isn't that we're better than everyone else. It's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been.” We should all remind ourselves of this every second of every single day.
Matt, your entire comment is amazingly insightful! Your observation that “it isn't that we're better than everyone else, it's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been,” is almost magical in its depth. If I were wearing a hat I would certainly tip it to you.
You missed one criterion: A progressive movement is good if and only if it goes out of business when its purpose has been served. (Hint: Can you name one?)
Part of the problem with American Progressivism at the end of the 19th century was that it was full of high ideals that history had not yet demonstrated were impossible for imperfect human beings to implement without the whole thing becoming even worse than the problem it was trying to solve.
Another flaw is the idea that history marches in some inexorable forward motion toward “progress”. If human nature were perfect, we wouldn’t need governments.
Maybe so. but I think that the root problem is the assumption -- still present -- that Other People are Just Like Us. The specifics of that may vary, but the ugly truth is that the world has very, very, very, very, very, very (got the idea?) few Jeffersonian democrats and not nearly as many as advertised who are Yearning for a Better Life ("free" being pretty much a foreign concept) as the do-gooders insist. It's Getting Away from There and Free Stuff. Not sure about the order. (And note that the data suggests that the invader's children tend to be far worse by any meaningful measure than the parents.)
They aren't talking about it, because it would be "racist", but any head of state with any sense at all would be emptying their prisons and sending them to Darien Gap right now. Castro did in 1980 when Carter lifted travel restrictions from Cuba. I heard second hand that he issued an announcement before opening the flood gates - "America is a free country. Everything there is free."
That is an excellent point. No, I can't name one. Maybe marriage equality if you consider it separate from the LGBTQAFLCIOGEICONFLONCBS movement as a whole.
That's the problem, though, it's it? The grifters had to find a new "cause" when marriage equality was handed to them on a platter, and they decided that "trans" was their next money-making grift.
I wouldn't say it was handed to them on a platter. They worked hard at the state level from the time DOMA was passed until the Obergefell decision came down, and had achieved some form of marriage equality in 37 states before the SC weighed in.
But I guess it's like Congress. No one wants to do the work and then go home anymore.
I guess I see Obergefell as a gift on a platter. The grifters were certain they had many years of hard work (and donations) in their future before marriage equality was 'won.' Obergefell settled the matter in one fell swoop, taking away the basis of their grift in a moment.
75% of the states, and around 90% of the people, were basically in agreement on expanding the protection of rights. Not a minority, not eliminating protections. So the SC ruled the way most of the country was already aligned with. Of course they were surprised when the system basically did the right thing. They hate the system, and they thought they could make a ton of money off it for many more years.
Good morning, Celia. Another home run. As much as I despise CBS News, 60 Minutes last night ran (or maybe re-ran) an amazing tribute to the incredible bravery of FDNY's heroes, going up into towers they knew were in danger of collapsing and almost rescuing those poor souls in the floors above the fire. That is the true spirit of our nation. Quiet heroism and resolve. The real New Yorkers. Not the fools in the salon society.
"America the Beautiful" is fine, if a bit treacly. Maybe a progressive anthem, Wilson the racist, dictating globalist and fraud was an example of that species. TR is often called a "progressive" but, if so, he was a muscular and courageous one, who believed in justice and fought against the trusts of his time.
As far as a patriotic anthem, I love our National Anthem and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA always stirs me. And reminds me of the Reagan Presidency, when it truly was morning in America and we had shaken off the malaise and depression of Carter's whining Democrat madness.
Also not sure if you saw that I posted this yesterday, but, as far as "anthems" are concerned, this one is spot on for telling the truth. Enjoy it. I'm sure it drives Don Henley crazy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVzrGMZ3CQo
Lol. Guess who owns you tube. Just trying to find the video in a google search is difficult. But they couldn't be in the tank for Kackles the Klown and Tampon Timmy? Could they?
Thanks for the video link, Bruce. I’m surprised YouTube hasn’t taken it down already!
Speaking of driving Don Henley crazy, I’m sure he must hate it that the lyric from “The End of the Innocence” I always interpreted as a dig at Ronald Reagan, "they're beating plowshares into swords, for this tired old man that we elected king,” would, 35 years later, be so much more appropriate for Joe Biden. (And in a nice piece of symmetry, the first line of the verse is lifted from “America the Beautiful.”)
Thank you. Imagine a teenager coming to this country without knowing much about American history. I was devouring it. Unfortunately, history was taught focusing on names, dates, places. Only later a friend introduced me to books by David McCullough starting with John Adams. Treasures!
If you haven’t already read it, I recommend The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making and Ratifying of the Constitution of the United States, by Carl Van Doren (1948). If it’s not still in print, it should be.
This is something I think about more frequently these days: “asking if the nation, and perhaps the world, can ever live up to its high ideals.” It seems to me that from Tic Toc videos to movies and even a lot of literature these days there is a purposeful eschewing of “high ideals.” There’s the “normalize[fill-in-the-blank]” trend which is essentially lowering a standard of expected (high ideal) behavior. The movie trailers that come across my feed all seem to be an exploration of aberrant behaviors.
I’m not a “Pollyanna,” but I wonder if exposing ourselves to examples of “high ideals” like in “America the Beautiful” isn’t a healthier approach to life even if it isn’t completely achievable!
Sally, so many lowering of the standards, nevertheless reaching for any type of ideal. I believe in the “broken windows” version of dress and appearance. We must fix the PJs to the grocery store mindset and work our way up from there.
As a teacher, PH, I can tell you that we have a LOT of work to do. It starts with taking back the schools so we can stop the indoctrination of our kids.
I believe those high ideals are something we work towards, not something we will ever acheive in every perfect detail. There seems to be alot of confusion, especially amongst the young, about the distinction between ideals we can be inspired by to do better, and what we are 'supposed' to be able to perfectly achieve. And really that confusion appears to me to be the root of most, if not all fanaticism and toxic shaming. Ideals themselves are good and necessary for healthy growth. Using ideals as a club and beating ourselves and each other up over them, not so good imo.
I learned about the Socratic Method and Platonism in school, even though the study of Greek and Roman authors had largely disappeared. I doubt very much that students in the years since I graduated from high school have even heard of those things.
They teach Plato, but they don't acknowledge that it's Plato. Derrida et al were very much writing about shadows on a cave wall, they knew it, they probably assumed everyone else would know it, but they underestimated how stupid people would become. Wokeists can't mention Plato because they'd wind up teaching western civilization and their students might decide that it's a good thing.
They’ve hidden deconstructionist thought in every woke movement so that even Plato, Aristotle, or other foundational Western philosophy are considered to have no fixed meaning or message. Absurd.
In second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Scarlata (likely daughter of immigrants) would sound her pitch pipe and we’d alternately sing this or “America” after the pledge. And yes, we had a moment of silence to actually pray.
Back then, America actually believed in itself and in God, as did Katherine Lee Bates. I read the piece you referenced by NPR music critic Daoud Tyler-Ameen. What a bunch of malarkey. Of course he highlights Bates’s feminism, bouts of depression, and socialist tendencies. Nothing about her faith or belief in this country’s potential. Bates lived in that gilded, guilt-free era of both. Neighbors helped neighbors back then. Industry and progress were celebrated. And God was our shepherd.
The article ends by surmising that Bates “is asking if the nation… can live up to its ideals.” The author imposes his own doubts on Bates and her paean to our potential, and then proceeds through implication to answer his own question. Our forefathers didn't achieve those ideals, ergo, they (not we, their innocent progeny) failed. Yet, there are no question marks in this poem. Not one conditional clause. It is a prayer, of sorts, for God to guide us to that higher moral plane. What I find so sad about our current age is we’re apparently too defeated, too educated, too smug — too lazy? — to strive anymore.
Thank you for teaching me about this history of this song, Celia. I've always wished we had chosen "America the Beautiful" as our national anthem. It's much easier to sing and, for me, far more beautiful.
I, too, find it easier to sing. I started out as an alto, and the older I get, the more tenor my voice becomes. Once upon a time, I could hit a high F if necessary. Now I get up to a high C and my voice starts saying, "Really, you expect this of me??"
Very nice column, Celia. I learned a great deal from it, and will be pondering what you wrote regarding the ideal America vs. the actual America, especially in the context of other aspirational ideals.
This song has never moved me to tears, although its soaring lyrics and melody often fill me with hope and inspiration. I often think of it as part of a patriotic trilogy, along with “America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
“America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee” has to be responsible for more childhood confusion than any other song. My sister swore the opening lyrics included the words, “My country ‘‘tis of thee, sweet land of liver trees.” I was certain I heard “of the ice ring” and “from every mountainside, let the dumb ring,” which I assumed had something to do with giving stupid people an opportunity.
On a more serious note, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” ALWAYS gives me a chill and frequently induces a tight throat and welling eyes, especially the verse, “as He died to make men Holy let us die to make men free,” which seems to have been replaced with “as He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,” which, I guess to someone’s ear, seems nicer.
I remember being grateful for anything musical that brought catharsis in the days and weeks following. This was one; another was the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem as I drove Interstate 5 and had images of the jumpers come to mind. I had to pull over.
Try this. Festival arrangement by a guy named Wilhousky. I listened to five versions and even at West Point, the "die to make men free" had been bowdlerized -- which the Brits did not do. Anyway, I got triggered. Sorry. I was privileged to participate in a performance with the Hartford Symphony. Here goes...
My husband was in London on 9/11. He took his daughter to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace the following day, and they played the Star Spangled Banner. First time ever. And never since.
We were a very confused group of kids, my brother, sister and I. ; ) My sister used to drive the AM disk jockeys crazy with her song requests, like “It’s Snowing” (Gentle on My Mind) and “The Girl With Light Scope Eyes” (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds).
Could be, although men’s and women’s willingness to leave their homes and families to likely die in the service of ending slavery and setting a people free says something important about our nation’s character that needs to be taught to schoolchildren rather than the Zinn-inspired hatred they’re taught now.
My mother had a record made of me singing at the age of 3 -- "Love and Marriage," "Count Your Blessings instead of Sheep," and "My country 'tis asleep"....
In one of the Ramona books, Ramona--wanting to show off her newly acquired school knowledge--tells her mom she should turn on the "donzer," because it gives a "lee light."
That last paragraph is something that frosts my cupcake. Not only has the line in question (and various others less obviously. for "inclusivity,") been bowdlerized, the watch fires of a hundred circling camps, among other images, have been memory-holed and, by the way, it's "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" and not The BATTLE HYMN of the Republic. They should have taken Julia Ward Howe's name off it out of respect. (Though Onward Christian Soldiers, Rise Up O Men of God and others have disappeared altogether). As the mainline churches continue their march to irrelevance.
'In Plato’s philosophy, all things in the real world are poor copies of perfect things in the unseen world'.
This ties in perfectly with what one of my Cherokee/Caddo Elders used to say. She was an amazing artist who told us that our visions (dreams/ideal, etc) are meant to be guideposts. They are meant to show us what direction to go in our lives, what to focus on and what to work towards, but they are never going to be completely achievable in every single detail. That is not the purpose of visions. Visions and and ideals are guiding stars, meant to inspire and encourage us to do better; they are not meant to shame us or make us feel bad about falling short of the impossible dream. That to me is what Bates poem is. A vision of what we can continue to celebrate and work towards together as Americans who love this beautiful land.
A bit off today’s topic, but maybe not… I’m so glad that the groupies here recommended “The Fourth Turning”. I cannot put it down!
Especially after listening yesterday to comments by both Weinstein brothers… we are truly at the cusp of choosing a disastrous or a golden next age. The vote has to be overwhelmingly pro Trump and the budding Unity party.
Disa- You are familiar with Scott’s group, yes? They are extremely well organized & are flying above so much & simulantaneouly in sync with every group & level…
What makes America the Beautiful distinctive is its combination of high ideals and geographical expanse, vertical and horizontal. But I’m still in bed and perhaps not thinking clearly.
Those are the words that spring most readily to my mind. They express a yearning for national unity that seems more ephemeral than ever. Yet, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, only 23 years ago, America experienced a national unity to remarkable extent. Sadly, it didn’t last long.
It my religion, we have a concept called the "pride cycle," which is quite similar to that quote about "strong men create good times." In the pride cycle, people have it so good that they become haughty and begin to despise God. It takes a period of suffering for them to repent and become faithful again, leading to good times...and there it goes again.
I always had trouble with the idea that groups of people could go through that cycle rapidly--quickly turning from their only recently recovered faithfulness to a rejection of goodness in just a few years (which happens several times in The Book of Mormon). But after observing the behavior of Americans in the years after 9/11, I never doubted that it was possible again.
Lovely. I can never get through that song without a tear. Thanks for the info on its history.
It is amazing to me that the critics of America’s greatness fail to see the irony in millions of immigrants entering our country yearly for “refuge” and “asylum”.
More amazing that they fail to see the madness of permitting many more millions to enter illegally, many of whom are criminals,, possibly terrorists, and the majority taxing our social safety net in a way that is patently unsustainable.
Surely the good people of NYC can afford to put these people up in expensive hotels forever?
Well, since Hate has no Home there and they are a sanctuary........
I'm shocked Michelle and Barry didn't find room for them in their vast mansion on Martha's Vineyard.
or their new digs in the Magnum PI mansion in Hawaii!!
Seriously? Did Zeus and Apollo come with it?
Or their DC digs.
Crashing the economy is intentional. :(
Remember the Cloward and Piven plan. Even though bad ideas from the past persist, their consequences are imminent. The system is currently in the late stages of overload, and chaos will ensue when it collapses. Be prepared.
Haitian illegals being dropped off in towns in Ohio and Alabama on the Biden parole program .
Ducks in parks are being killed for food and ?I thought they are given food stamps.m
Food stamps are for Coca Cola and Fritos.
Or for selling to get cash for booze and drugs. :~P
I think they're required to eat Doritos--that's Kommie-La's favorite.
The ducks?
Why ducks? Don't they have the plague of Canada geese? Like around here?
No golf courses in Manhattan.
Here in northern PRNJ the damn geese are pretty much everywhere with grass and water.
Maybe overpopulation has made them less picky. When the geese started invading Georgia and Florida I read that it was all golf courses. To the point where people needed bigger cleats on their golf shoes because there really isn't much that's slicker than goose shit. Ornithologists said the fairway grass on golf courses is very sweet so the geese were attracted to it.
Aha. Or not so many golf courses?
You’re in my hometown … sorta - what do you think about what’s going on in Rocky Hill?
What IS going on in Rocky Hill?
I read they are skinning and eating cats. Again, I get different cultural norms, but don’t come here and do that.
Pet cats have gone missing and being strung up in trees. Birds and geese are being grabbed out of parks and eaten.
Many Haitians have been living for months at Boston's Logan Airport. Just camped out on the floor at the international terminal, complete with air mattresses. Earlier this year state and local officials kicked locals, most of them minorities, out of their community center in Roxbury so that the Haitians could be housed there until "other" housing could be found for them.
There were South American illegals at O'Hare for a while too.
I thought that this was that gawdawful place from which one required refuge and/or asylum.
Weird.
I often point that out when the hateful left portrays the US as an oppressive, racist, police state. To them I say, "If that is true how come millions of people risk death to enter illegally to this police state shit hole?"
During the cold war the left's communist pals built walls to keep people in not out.
Import the third world, become the third world.
I remember learning the words when I was in grade school. This would be about 70 years ago. We would all stand with our classmates in rows and the principal, Miss Graham, would talk with us each morning. There was the pledge of allegiance—I remember when “under God” was added—announcements, and usually a patriotic song or two. Maybe even a Christmas carol. And then on to the tender mercies, or at least bare tolerance of our teachers.
But the words to America the Beautiful, like the words to The Star Spangled Banner were hollow to us for years. If that was discussed in the morning, I don’t recall it, but I was just a very callow kid then. Words were sounds without much meaning. It wasn’t until adulthood, when I actually thought about the songs, that they made sense to me. And it wasn’t until a trip to Arizona that I saw “spacious skies.” Purple mountains I got skiing, but wide open spaces—the negatives of cities—had to wait. I didn’t see DC until I was driving with my dad from New Orleans to Boston for me to start college. Alabaster was poetic license for white marble. Heavy, substantial marble undimmed by tears talks to the ideal of justice being rational and fairly administered; logic alone would dictate the actions and legislation coming out of the “alabaster cities.” I doubt it was ever thus since maybe 1850 or so, but we’re talking Platonic ideals, not cold, messy reality.
A few years ago, a leftist friend was going on about how bad America is, that even our national anthem is about war. She had no idea that it was about a war that we fought as a war of independence 2.0 . If she ever heard of the War of 1812, she didn’t seem to recall it. I pointed out what it all meant, maybe not very gently, and recited the final stanza to her. The couplet
O, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s devastation…
is the distilled definition of bravery.
Might be useful, or at least interesting to see whether parsing these two well-known, but apparently poorly understood, poems might change some students’ attitudes about the country.
It isn't that our Leftist fools misunderstand history so much as they pervert it and misuse it to glorify the madness and murder of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela and China, while denigrating the beauty and goodness of America.
And there it is, yes. There's no talking to "them." "...change some students' attitudes," give me a break!
You mean we can't reason with people who proudly wear images of a mass murderer on hats and tee shirts and fly the flag of a terrorist organization intent on genocide?
This should be on a t-shirt or something.
They would all have to be XXXL :)
See my comment on Wellesley College's devolution. (I'm class of '86.)
Does your friend also like most leftists glorify the French Revolution? It is always amusing when they find out how bloody that one was.
I too find it odd that people don't really understand the history behind the Star-spangled Banner.
Most Leftists do seem to think the glorious French Revolution ended with the death of the king, and then there were unicorns. The whole ugly mess that ended with Napoleon trampling Europe isn't really taught in schools.
Just as they continually glorify leftist revolutions. Le Miz, anyone? And then what? Our Revolution succeeded precisely because it was a conservative revolution to restore the rule of law and the rights of man.
She wouldn’t know the French Revolution from French bread. But that doesn’t stop her from having strong opinions. They’re just ill-informed ones. Unfortunately, she also votes.
As for people not understanding SSB, ask the next 25 people you come across what it's about. Even just what ~war~ it’s about. I’ll give you a buck for every one that knows the answer. No cheating!
It is funny how so many of them glorify the French Revolution but are unaware of how it ended. The mob always eats its own.
Doesn’t it?!
I think of the quoted couplet as the 3rd of four verses. (There for some reason appears to be no Standard, which is strange for an Offishul Song.) There are some songs that leave me a blubbering mess; being one of those rare tenors, it is well that I know them well. Yeah the Hallelujah Chorus. But also The Anthem and the subject work. And the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (which I will not bowdlerize)
Yep. Final stanza of Battle Hymn takes my voice.
A beautiful poem, that recognizes the incredible gift this country is. Incredible natural resources - not as plentiful as Russia (though only a smallpox outbreak kept Canada from being part of the US) but the physical isolation makes up for that. Incredible beauty. Every environment type there is except tropical rainforest. We even have deep natural ties to the place many of us originated from thanks to the oldest mountain range in the world, which ran from Georgia to Scotland when there was only one continent. And also the gift of a nation that has never known a monarch - the only such nation in history at the time. And two founding documents that are still unrivaled.
It's sad that so many people misunderstand American Exceptionalism now. It isn't that we're better than everyone else. It's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been.
There's nothing wrong with progressivism. It requires conservatism, reactionaries, to reel it back in when it goes bad (eugenics, prohibition, wokeism) but it can be a powerful force for good (abolition, enfranchisement of women, the civil rights movement). You can determine if a progressive movement is good or bad very easily. Is it promoted by people who love this country, or by people who hate it? Does it intend to bring us closer to the ideals we started with, make one more step toward becoming that shining city on a hill, or is it intended to destroy those ideals with selfishness and hate?
It's pretty clear what kind of progressives we have now. We'd all be better off if they read Bates instead of Marx.
“It isn't that we're better than everyone else. It's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been.” We should all remind ourselves of this every second of every single day.
I'm copying it down and saving it.
We had… the American dream is being made into a nightmare if it even survives 🥲🙏
Matt, your entire comment is amazingly insightful! Your observation that “it isn't that we're better than everyone else, it's that we have the opportunity to be better than anyone has ever been,” is almost magical in its depth. If I were wearing a hat I would certainly tip it to you.
That’s really good to ‼️‼️
You missed one criterion: A progressive movement is good if and only if it goes out of business when its purpose has been served. (Hint: Can you name one?)
Part of the problem with American Progressivism at the end of the 19th century was that it was full of high ideals that history had not yet demonstrated were impossible for imperfect human beings to implement without the whole thing becoming even worse than the problem it was trying to solve.
And that sums up so many well intentioned movements unfortunately. I am specifically thinking of the environmental movement this am.........
Another flaw is the idea that history marches in some inexorable forward motion toward “progress”. If human nature were perfect, we wouldn’t need governments.
So many empires have fallen. Knowledge has been lost. The idea that history is a forward march is a matter of survivor's bias.
For sure.
Maybe so. but I think that the root problem is the assumption -- still present -- that Other People are Just Like Us. The specifics of that may vary, but the ugly truth is that the world has very, very, very, very, very, very (got the idea?) few Jeffersonian democrats and not nearly as many as advertised who are Yearning for a Better Life ("free" being pretty much a foreign concept) as the do-gooders insist. It's Getting Away from There and Free Stuff. Not sure about the order. (And note that the data suggests that the invader's children tend to be far worse by any meaningful measure than the parents.)
They aren't talking about it, because it would be "racist", but any head of state with any sense at all would be emptying their prisons and sending them to Darien Gap right now. Castro did in 1980 when Carter lifted travel restrictions from Cuba. I heard second hand that he issued an announcement before opening the flood gates - "America is a free country. Everything there is free."
That is an excellent point. No, I can't name one. Maybe marriage equality if you consider it separate from the LGBTQAFLCIOGEICONFLONCBS movement as a whole.
That's the problem, though, it's it? The grifters had to find a new "cause" when marriage equality was handed to them on a platter, and they decided that "trans" was their next money-making grift.
I wouldn't say it was handed to them on a platter. They worked hard at the state level from the time DOMA was passed until the Obergefell decision came down, and had achieved some form of marriage equality in 37 states before the SC weighed in.
But I guess it's like Congress. No one wants to do the work and then go home anymore.
I guess I see Obergefell as a gift on a platter. The grifters were certain they had many years of hard work (and donations) in their future before marriage equality was 'won.' Obergefell settled the matter in one fell swoop, taking away the basis of their grift in a moment.
75% of the states, and around 90% of the people, were basically in agreement on expanding the protection of rights. Not a minority, not eliminating protections. So the SC ruled the way most of the country was already aligned with. Of course they were surprised when the system basically did the right thing. They hate the system, and they thought they could make a ton of money off it for many more years.
Precisely. Grifters can’t plead for donations if a problem is solved.
Good morning, Celia. Another home run. As much as I despise CBS News, 60 Minutes last night ran (or maybe re-ran) an amazing tribute to the incredible bravery of FDNY's heroes, going up into towers they knew were in danger of collapsing and almost rescuing those poor souls in the floors above the fire. That is the true spirit of our nation. Quiet heroism and resolve. The real New Yorkers. Not the fools in the salon society.
"America the Beautiful" is fine, if a bit treacly. Maybe a progressive anthem, Wilson the racist, dictating globalist and fraud was an example of that species. TR is often called a "progressive" but, if so, he was a muscular and courageous one, who believed in justice and fought against the trusts of his time.
As far as a patriotic anthem, I love our National Anthem and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA always stirs me. And reminds me of the Reagan Presidency, when it truly was morning in America and we had shaken off the malaise and depression of Carter's whining Democrat madness.
Also not sure if you saw that I posted this yesterday, but, as far as "anthems" are concerned, this one is spot on for telling the truth. Enjoy it. I'm sure it drives Don Henley crazy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVzrGMZ3CQo
Cool video :) Interesting that comments are allowed, but there are no comments with 190K views.
Lol. Guess who owns you tube. Just trying to find the video in a google search is difficult. But they couldn't be in the tank for Kackles the Klown and Tampon Timmy? Could they?
Thanks for the video link, Bruce. I’m surprised YouTube hasn’t taken it down already!
Speaking of driving Don Henley crazy, I’m sure he must hate it that the lyric from “The End of the Innocence” I always interpreted as a dig at Ronald Reagan, "they're beating plowshares into swords, for this tired old man that we elected king,” would, 35 years later, be so much more appropriate for Joe Biden. (And in a nice piece of symmetry, the first line of the verse is lifted from “America the Beautiful.”)
O' beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They're beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king
"We elected?" lol
Yeah, it was *totally* Reagan who started the Cold War. *rolls eyes*
He didn't start it, but he sure as hell ended it. If only the war mongers in the deep state hadn't been determined to keep it going....
Thank you. Imagine a teenager coming to this country without knowing much about American history. I was devouring it. Unfortunately, history was taught focusing on names, dates, places. Only later a friend introduced me to books by David McCullough starting with John Adams. Treasures!
If you haven’t already read it, I recommend The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making and Ratifying of the Constitution of the United States, by Carl Van Doren (1948). If it’s not still in print, it should be.
Was that the Van Doren who was at the center of that game show scandal in the early 50’s?
That was Charles Van Doren. Carl was his uncle. It's confusing, I know!
This is something I think about more frequently these days: “asking if the nation, and perhaps the world, can ever live up to its high ideals.” It seems to me that from Tic Toc videos to movies and even a lot of literature these days there is a purposeful eschewing of “high ideals.” There’s the “normalize[fill-in-the-blank]” trend which is essentially lowering a standard of expected (high ideal) behavior. The movie trailers that come across my feed all seem to be an exploration of aberrant behaviors.
I’m not a “Pollyanna,” but I wonder if exposing ourselves to examples of “high ideals” like in “America the Beautiful” isn’t a healthier approach to life even if it isn’t completely achievable!
Without "high ideals" there are no ideals.
Or accomplishments.
Sally, so many lowering of the standards, nevertheless reaching for any type of ideal. I believe in the “broken windows” version of dress and appearance. We must fix the PJs to the grocery store mindset and work our way up from there.
As a teacher, PH, I can tell you that we have a LOT of work to do. It starts with taking back the schools so we can stop the indoctrination of our kids.
I believe those high ideals are something we work towards, not something we will ever acheive in every perfect detail. There seems to be alot of confusion, especially amongst the young, about the distinction between ideals we can be inspired by to do better, and what we are 'supposed' to be able to perfectly achieve. And really that confusion appears to me to be the root of most, if not all fanaticism and toxic shaming. Ideals themselves are good and necessary for healthy growth. Using ideals as a club and beating ourselves and each other up over them, not so good imo.
I learned about the Socratic Method and Platonism in school, even though the study of Greek and Roman authors had largely disappeared. I doubt very much that students in the years since I graduated from high school have even heard of those things.
They teach Plato, but they don't acknowledge that it's Plato. Derrida et al were very much writing about shadows on a cave wall, they knew it, they probably assumed everyone else would know it, but they underestimated how stupid people would become. Wokeists can't mention Plato because they'd wind up teaching western civilization and their students might decide that it's a good thing.
They’ve hidden deconstructionist thought in every woke movement so that even Plato, Aristotle, or other foundational Western philosophy are considered to have no fixed meaning or message. Absurd.
In second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Scarlata (likely daughter of immigrants) would sound her pitch pipe and we’d alternately sing this or “America” after the pledge. And yes, we had a moment of silence to actually pray.
Back then, America actually believed in itself and in God, as did Katherine Lee Bates. I read the piece you referenced by NPR music critic Daoud Tyler-Ameen. What a bunch of malarkey. Of course he highlights Bates’s feminism, bouts of depression, and socialist tendencies. Nothing about her faith or belief in this country’s potential. Bates lived in that gilded, guilt-free era of both. Neighbors helped neighbors back then. Industry and progress were celebrated. And God was our shepherd.
The article ends by surmising that Bates “is asking if the nation… can live up to its ideals.” The author imposes his own doubts on Bates and her paean to our potential, and then proceeds through implication to answer his own question. Our forefathers didn't achieve those ideals, ergo, they (not we, their innocent progeny) failed. Yet, there are no question marks in this poem. Not one conditional clause. It is a prayer, of sorts, for God to guide us to that higher moral plane. What I find so sad about our current age is we’re apparently too defeated, too educated, too smug — too lazy? — to strive anymore.
Youngster. Useta was the Lord's Prayer or the 23rd Psalm. And God Bless America in the rotation.
I was always a sucker for Ray Charles' rendition.
https://youtu.be/HlHMQEegpFs?feature=shared
Who better to capture both man and country's imperfection?
It is sublime and one of my favs!!
Thank you for teaching me about this history of this song, Celia. I've always wished we had chosen "America the Beautiful" as our national anthem. It's much easier to sing and, for me, far more beautiful.
I, too, find it easier to sing. I started out as an alto, and the older I get, the more tenor my voice becomes. Once upon a time, I could hit a high F if necessary. Now I get up to a high C and my voice starts saying, "Really, you expect this of me??"
Ha!ha!ha!
Very nice column, Celia. I learned a great deal from it, and will be pondering what you wrote regarding the ideal America vs. the actual America, especially in the context of other aspirational ideals.
This song has never moved me to tears, although its soaring lyrics and melody often fill me with hope and inspiration. I often think of it as part of a patriotic trilogy, along with “America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
“America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee” has to be responsible for more childhood confusion than any other song. My sister swore the opening lyrics included the words, “My country ‘‘tis of thee, sweet land of liver trees.” I was certain I heard “of the ice ring” and “from every mountainside, let the dumb ring,” which I assumed had something to do with giving stupid people an opportunity.
On a more serious note, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” ALWAYS gives me a chill and frequently induces a tight throat and welling eyes, especially the verse, “as He died to make men Holy let us die to make men free,” which seems to have been replaced with “as He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,” which, I guess to someone’s ear, seems nicer.
Remember this? The music starts at the 1:30 mark:
https://youtu.be/rmpo0csiIMs?si=JTDFs3_2J7CBfBoq
That was truly moving. Thank you for sending the link, Billiamo.
Wow, that moved something deep in my heart, seeing British people singing that very American song.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t this America use the same music as God Save the King (Queen)? Brits have that song practically in their DNA
Nope, different tune.
That's "My Country 'Tis of Thee", Ken.
You are both correct so I stand corrected lol 😆
I remember being grateful for anything musical that brought catharsis in the days and weeks following. This was one; another was the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem as I drove Interstate 5 and had images of the jumpers come to mind. I had to pull over.
They were careful, after those initial images, not to show the jumpers. But it's something that is not possible to forget.
Try this. Festival arrangement by a guy named Wilhousky. I listened to five versions and even at West Point, the "die to make men free" had been bowdlerized -- which the Brits did not do. Anyway, I got triggered. Sorry. I was privileged to participate in a performance with the Hartford Symphony. Here goes...
https://youtu.be/vWUANVzqF8o
My husband was in London on 9/11. He took his daughter to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace the following day, and they played the Star Spangled Banner. First time ever. And never since.
What an hilarious childhood interpretation of those lyrics James!
We were a very confused group of kids, my brother, sister and I. ; ) My sister used to drive the AM disk jockeys crazy with her song requests, like “It’s Snowing” (Gentle on My Mind) and “The Girl With Light Scope Eyes” (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds).
I laughed.
I suppose that after the Civil War was over, it was less vital to be willing to *die* to make men free.
Could be, although men’s and women’s willingness to leave their homes and families to likely die in the service of ending slavery and setting a people free says something important about our nation’s character that needs to be taught to schoolchildren rather than the Zinn-inspired hatred they’re taught now.
My mother had a record made of me singing at the age of 3 -- "Love and Marriage," "Count Your Blessings instead of Sheep," and "My country 'tis asleep"....
In one of the Ramona books, Ramona--wanting to show off her newly acquired school knowledge--tells her mom she should turn on the "donzer," because it gives a "lee light."
A bit like the "Rose Suchuch Ladder" company in "The Santa Clause"!
I was a minister's son. I can remember singing "Bringing in the cheese" for "Bringing in the Sheaves".
That last paragraph is something that frosts my cupcake. Not only has the line in question (and various others less obviously. for "inclusivity,") been bowdlerized, the watch fires of a hundred circling camps, among other images, have been memory-holed and, by the way, it's "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" and not The BATTLE HYMN of the Republic. They should have taken Julia Ward Howe's name off it out of respect. (Though Onward Christian Soldiers, Rise Up O Men of God and others have disappeared altogether). As the mainline churches continue their march to irrelevance.
This has always been my favorite "recording".
https://youtu.be/Jxif9H1xalg?si=1lCOyppYY7Et0juA
'In Plato’s philosophy, all things in the real world are poor copies of perfect things in the unseen world'.
This ties in perfectly with what one of my Cherokee/Caddo Elders used to say. She was an amazing artist who told us that our visions (dreams/ideal, etc) are meant to be guideposts. They are meant to show us what direction to go in our lives, what to focus on and what to work towards, but they are never going to be completely achievable in every single detail. That is not the purpose of visions. Visions and and ideals are guiding stars, meant to inspire and encourage us to do better; they are not meant to shame us or make us feel bad about falling short of the impossible dream. That to me is what Bates poem is. A vision of what we can continue to celebrate and work towards together as Americans who love this beautiful land.
A bit off today’s topic, but maybe not… I’m so glad that the groupies here recommended “The Fourth Turning”. I cannot put it down!
Especially after listening yesterday to comments by both Weinstein brothers… we are truly at the cusp of choosing a disastrous or a golden next age. The vote has to be overwhelmingly pro Trump and the budding Unity party.
Bret has been at the forefront of the Save the Republic Movement
Eric seems to be finally able to recognize his Democratic Party is no longer
Disa- You are familiar with Scott’s group, yes? They are extremely well organized & are flying above so much & simulantaneouly in sync with every group & level…
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2024-times-and
I just got that book from the library! It's on my to-read this for this week.
What makes America the Beautiful distinctive is its combination of high ideals and geographical expanse, vertical and horizontal. But I’m still in bed and perhaps not thinking clearly.
Sounds clear to me!
God shed His Grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea
Those are the words that spring most readily to my mind. They express a yearning for national unity that seems more ephemeral than ever. Yet, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, only 23 years ago, America experienced a national unity to remarkable extent. Sadly, it didn’t last long.
It my religion, we have a concept called the "pride cycle," which is quite similar to that quote about "strong men create good times." In the pride cycle, people have it so good that they become haughty and begin to despise God. It takes a period of suffering for them to repent and become faithful again, leading to good times...and there it goes again.
I always had trouble with the idea that groups of people could go through that cycle rapidly--quickly turning from their only recently recovered faithfulness to a rejection of goodness in just a few years (which happens several times in The Book of Mormon). But after observing the behavior of Americans in the years after 9/11, I never doubted that it was possible again.
Used to be the alabaster cities. Now it;s the heroes. Dunno why. Snif.
Whiteness.
We have a bingo...