Happy 4th of July

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

Happy 4th of July!! I have to get a little patriotic and corny here, and say that I'm thankful and proud to be an American. Regardless of where you stand today in your opinion of our country, I hope that you can at least be thankful to live in a country where you can live free from fear and oppression, free to choose your own way in life, and free to pursue happiness. I think I so often forget what people went through so many years ago to bring us to where we are. I'm ashamed that I have not the same bravery they did. I'm ashamed I have trampled on what they did for me by taking freedoms for granted, by being lazy, by not honoring their sacrifice. I chose a dirty old picture of the American flag because I think it stands more for how our country came to be what it is today than a clean perfect image of red, white, and blue. I don't romanticize the past. But I'm thankful for what has been done before me so I can live in such a privileged position.

I remember one year the wife of the captain of Flight 93 spoke. She looked at the audience and said for them to live their lives and make his sacrifice worth it. I hope that I can make the sacrifices of the brave men and women, past and present, totally worth it.