The following was written as a tribute to our country on its bicentennial in 1976. The words ring just as true today as when they were written some 15 years ago.
“I Am the Nation! by Otto Whittaker
I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many things and many people, “I am the nation.”
I am over 213 million living souls and the ghost of millions who have lived and died for me.
I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry.
I am John Paul Jones, the Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett. I am Lee, and Grant and Abe Lincoln.
I remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor. When freedom called, I answered and stayed until it was over, over there.
I left my heroic dead in Flanders Field, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea, in the steaming jungle of Vietnam, (and on the desert sands of Iraq and Afghanistan. - My words.)
I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas and the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coal mines of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the fertile lands of the West, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac.
I am big, I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, my arms reach out to embrace Alaska and Hawaii, 3 million square miles throbbing with industry.
I am more than 5 million farms. I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am quiet villages and cities that never sleep.
You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his bread loaf under his arm.
You can see Betsy Ross with her needle. You can see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” as the calendar turns.
I am Babe Ruth and the World Series. I am 110,000 schools and colleges and 3,330,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best.
I am a ballot dropped into a box, the roar of a crowd in a stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral. I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to a congressman.
I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster. I am Tom Edison, Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright Brothers.
I am Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine.
I am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk and Martin Luther King Jr.
Yes, I am the nation, and these are the things that I am. I was conceived in freedom, and God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days.
May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the World!
May God Continue to Bless America.
Pastor Pat
If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.
“I Am the Nation! by Otto Whittaker
I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many things and many people, “I am the nation.”
I am over 213 million living souls and the ghost of millions who have lived and died for me.
I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry.
I am John Paul Jones, the Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett. I am Lee, and Grant and Abe Lincoln.
I remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor. When freedom called, I answered and stayed until it was over, over there.
I left my heroic dead in Flanders Field, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea, in the steaming jungle of Vietnam, (and on the desert sands of Iraq and Afghanistan. - My words.)
I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas and the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coal mines of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the fertile lands of the West, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac.
I am big, I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, my arms reach out to embrace Alaska and Hawaii, 3 million square miles throbbing with industry.
I am more than 5 million farms. I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am quiet villages and cities that never sleep.
You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his bread loaf under his arm.
You can see Betsy Ross with her needle. You can see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” as the calendar turns.
I am Babe Ruth and the World Series. I am 110,000 schools and colleges and 3,330,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best.
I am a ballot dropped into a box, the roar of a crowd in a stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral. I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to a congressman.
I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster. I am Tom Edison, Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright Brothers.
I am Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine.
I am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk and Martin Luther King Jr.
Yes, I am the nation, and these are the things that I am. I was conceived in freedom, and God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days.
May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the World!
May God Continue to Bless America.
Pastor Pat
If you have a private prayer request, even if that request is to know Jesus as your savior, e-mail us at torsogong@ yahoo.com. We will forward it immediately to the appropriate ministry, whether it be the pastor and elders and/or our Prayer Warriors. Please title the subject of your e-mail "Prayer Request".
God bless you.
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