America The Beautiful

O' beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

I have been lied to and manipulated by every president in my lifetime, starting with Richard Nixon. Trump, because he’s nutty as a fruitcake, was by far the worst president I will ever see.

I'm a Republican. Although I'm an ardent fan of Harry Truman, who was one of the three great presidents of my lifetime (Eisenhower and Reagan being the other two), I'm a renegade Republican who believes you cannot have too conservative a president, nor too liberal a Supreme Court.

This stance makes me no friends on either side of the political spectrum. Frankly, I don't care.

I don't trust anyone whose job depends on votes and who can fold under fire from a lobbyist or a pressure group. That's why I'm constantly asking: How did the NRA checkbook become more powerful than the United States government?

When it comes to my freedom, I don't trust any politician. I rely on the nine members of the Supreme Court to guard my freedom and protect me from any weak, scheming president and any dumber-than-dirt Congress. I pray for the good health of Chief Justice John Roberts, a smart middle-of-the-road man who can protect us from the lock-step crazy Justices on both sides of the Court, although he is now seriously outnumbered.

No one can come up with more conspiracy theories than I can. I'm a child of the '60s, waiting for the first bad flashback they promised me, and all I'm getting are warm memories.

I've had it up to here with people who want to tell other people how to live, who to love, who to pray to, what to wear, what to believe in.

And that includes people who believe theirs is the only skin color, theirs is the only language, theirs is the only God.

I have no time or patience for people who believe that God only talks to them, and that their way is the only way.

I'm a pessimist, a skeptic, a cynic.

This is a long way of telling you how much I'm affected by the Independence Day holiday and the words of the song printed above. The music, the words, and the sentiment never fail to bring me to tears.

It started when I was almost too young to understand it. I'm the child of immigrants who bought the dream of those words for me and for my children and for my children's children. They picked the only country in the world where dreams truly do come true.

For many of the early years, I threw a party at my house for my friends on the Fourth of July so we could go watch the gorgeous fireworks displays together. Every year I would play music that worked with the fireworks.

I would spend days working on my fireworks playlist.

Every year my music and the sparkling light show would sync perfectly and I would watch the faces of my friends looking up to the sky with the colors of fireworks reflected on their faces.

Every year I would see tears streaming down some of the faces. The year after 9/11, there were more memories and more tears.

Sadly, many of the fireworks were stopped a few years ago by a few disgusting, gutless politicians, so now thousands of men, women and children are missing out on a patriotic rite that we need now more than ever.

If you live in a town where the town fathers and mothers choose to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, this is the music I suggest you play as the fireworks go off:

"Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin

"Amazing Grace" by Tramaine Hawkins

"God Bless America" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

"America the Beautiful" by Charlie Rich

"America the Beautiful" by Elvis Presley.

And finally, at the finale, when the sky is booming and the earth is trembling – with the sound at its loudest and the sky filled with stars – play:

"God Bless America" by Kate Smith

And finally:

"America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles.

Just wait until you hear that fat, old, anti-Semitic fascist Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." She was a pig, but could she sing. She sang the words of this wonderful song with great verve and great feeling and you can celebrate the fact that Kate Smith never got the ugly, intolerant all-white America she wanted.

And, saving the best for last, listen as the great Ray Charles sends chills down your spine as you hear him singing the greatest version of "America the Beautiful" ever recorded.

Then do as I do and whisper to yourself, "America is the best place in the world. It will outlive any lying, tweeting politician who doesn't think so.