What Is America To Me?

'THE HOUSE I LIVE IN'

What is America to me?
A name, a map, the flag I see,
a certain word, "Democracy."
What is America to me

The house I live in, A plot of earth, a street,
The grocer and the butcher and the people that I meet,
The children in the playground, the faces that I see;
All races, all religions, that's America to me.

The place I work in, the worker at my side
The little town or city where my people lived and died
The "howdy" and the hand-shake the air of feeling free
the right to speak my mind out, that's America to me.

The things I see about me the big things and the small
The little corner news-stand and the house a mile tall;
The wedding and the churchyard, the laughter and the tears,
The dream that's been a growin' for a hundred fifty years

The town I live in the street, the house, the room,
The pavement of the city, or a garden all in bloom,
The church, the school, the club house,
The million lights I see, But especially the people,
That's America to me.

Words by Lewis Allan, Music by Earl Robinson

I remember Frank Sinatra's rendition of this song many years ago. I was moved to tears then when I listened to it, as I am now as I read the lyrics. When I sang the National Anthem at the Hollywood Bowl along with thousands of others. I was proud to be in American, and happy to live in our great country.

During my 4 years of Air Force service during the Korean War, I was pleased to wear my uniform, proud of my service, and proud of America. I believe that as a Nation we have done a lot of good throughout the world, and sadly, very often, we did not behave well and did not do the right thing. It pains me to hear "isn't the world better place without Sadaam?" "Isn't it better to fight terror over there then in our country?" What sad commentary and rationale for a bad war.

Looking back I realize it was only on rare occasions that we would blow up people and things when people upset us, but after all, we were the "good guys" and we had more guns then anyone else. Not a good enough reason, but one that has sufficed for many thousands of years.

For what I believe to be the first time in our not always glorious history we have gone to War when we were not attacked -- to liberate a nation many thousands of miles away. We crushed the bad guys very quickly, yet after "Mission Accomplished" we don't seem to have a clue as to what to do next. They say we are winning, but winning what?

When I hear about how we have liberated a nation of people who are now trying to kill their liberators I am inclined to think that something has gone wrong here. Things continue to explode, people are killed and maimed on both sides, and our 21st century society goes about it's business as though we are doing "the right thing." It's not easy to rationalize how we got into this mess, but it is even more difficult to understand why we are not trying other means to get out of it.

Both of our political parties consider it politically prudent to continue our war policy. Good grief, what is the meaningful difference between the two parties in this regard? It might not be a good idea politically to declare that you wanted to put a stop to the killing, but it certainly would be a refreshing idea.

"Stay the course." What does that mean? If the people we set out to liberate only want to kill their liberators, how can we not propose a better solution then to send in more troops, either ours or those of other nations to kill the Iraqis we are saving, or be attacked or killed themselves? Our course of action is truly crazy. Can't we do better?

It is not easy to feel the pain of a single soldier or civilian killed or wounded in this war. The mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives et al, get to have everlasting grief that knows no politics, no right no wrong, only grief and sadness over loss.

And yet, our Secretary of Defense, when asked if what we have done in Iraq has been worth it, replied that many have been killed, and many more severely maimed, but of course it was worth it. How many other people's lives must be spent because we as a nation did something wrong, made a mistake, and are unwilling to take responsibility for it and do something about it?

What is America to me?
A name, a map, the flag I see,
a certain word, "Democracy."
What is America to me

This stuff reads well. But we don't seem to be living by it.

Norman Horowitz

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