I'm an American. Since gaining independence in our rebellion against the English, we've become a rather large nation, made up of all sorts of people from all different backgrounds. We pioneered the free enterprise system which has blessed billions of people all over the world, and the idea of a democratic republic has been our grand experiment. We love our freedoms and protect them fiercely. We've saved the world from totalitarians who wanted to take over the world twice, and all we've ever asked for in return has been enough ground to bury our dead. People may resent us, but that's okay. I feel blessed just to live here.
On a more local level, I'm a Missourian. Right in the middle of the lower 48 states, we are a pretty tough bunch of wood hicks. It's beautiful country, but the economy here is pretty awful. I'm not moving if I get a say-so in it, though.
This is our national anthem, in full:
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
