This Land is Your Land
~ written and composed by Woody Guthrie ~
~ chorus ~
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me
~ verses ~
As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me
I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
O’er the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
While all around me, a voice was saying
This land was made for you and me
When the sun came shining and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
As the fog was lifting, a voice was chanting
This land was made for you and me
The Ensigns of Our Land
Colonial Flag
Great Union Flag
Rattlesnake Flag
Bennington Flag
The third Official Flag
The 48 Stars Flag
The American's Creed
Written during World War I by William Tyler Page, the American's Creed was
memorized and recited by Maryland public school students in the 1950s. And I remember.
"I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people
by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation
of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principls of freedom, equality, justice, and
humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies."
I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American;and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character
to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences.
What
are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the
good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil
which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great
transactions which concern that country's fate?
Let
the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer
too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in
the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.
About Woody by John Steinbeck ~~ Woody
is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name.
He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I
suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his
guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet
about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But
there is something more important for those who will listen. There is
the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think
we call this the American spirit.
