RAGGED OLD FLAG

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing _Oh Say Can You See_.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams."

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag."

"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam."

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused."
"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."

"So we raise her up every morning,
Take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought I DO like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

Written by Johnny Cash

WHY I LOVE HER
by
John Wayne

"America, America, God shed His grace on thee.."
You ask me why I love her ? Well, give me time and I'll explain.
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain ?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way ?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay ?

Have you heard a bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines
Or heard the bellow of a diesel at the Appalachia mines ?
Does the call of the Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar ?
Do you look with awe and wonder at her Massachussets shore...
Where men, who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth's rock ?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock ?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies...way up high ?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky ?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...
Or bow your head at Gettysburg...at our struggle to be free ?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons?...Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore ?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winter's day,
Her waters rage along the shore in thunderous display ?
Does the word "Aloha"...make you warm ? Do you stare in disbelief
When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea Reef ?

From Alaska's cold to the Everglades...from the Rio Grande to Maine...
My heart cries out...my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain

You ask me why I love her ?...I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America...beneath God's wide, wide sky.

"And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea."