Reply #35: "AtB" is NOT a blindly-trusting patriot's friend if you hear ALL the lyric

[blondeatlast]

"This Land is Your Land" just isn't anthemic, IMHO, although I have always loved the song. AtB really gets to the heart of what once made this country great, and maybe someday, will return to.

You have to go through all the lyrics, but it celebrates the land, the people, the sacrifices, and hardly glorifies war, instead, it honors those who have fallen in the US's defense(verse 3). Big difference. I certainly understand the objections to the references to God, but it really packs a punch, IMHO.

There are actually a couple of more verese to AtB, ones certain to PO a few Freepers:

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

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
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!