happy 4th of july......

from our family to yours... 
THE AMERICAN FLAG

When freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white,
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand,
The symbol of her chosen land.

Joseph Rodman Drake
(1795-1820)


 
"Four score and seven years ago, our
fathers brought forth upon this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal..."

"...that this nation shall, under God,
have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from
the earth." Abraham Lincoln


 
Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand;
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true.
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and home.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.
Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

***John Phillip Sousa, 1896***

  

America, beloved land,
we love your legacy
of freedom and justice
for all humanity.

America, beloved land
forever may we strive
to keep your wondrous, shining dream
of liberty alive.

Freedom . . . . is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has bestowed upon men; no treasures that the earth holds buried or the sea conceals can compare with it; for freedom, as for honor, life may and should be ventured.

—Miguel de Cernates