Well, I should have known such an important topic would attract an erudite gathering! What a nice way to start my morning.

If they left it up to y'all, the deed would be done: and so it should be. Let's do it!

It seems to me that very many people (including me!) heard all the rest of these wonderful verses and refrains after 9/11 when everything patriotic was trotted out. It's some of the most lovely poetry I know. And I have to say that impromptu and town gatherings were truly stirring when people gathered and sang ALL these songs, not just 'the baseball song'.

I think Jim's spoken wisely about religion and public life: those are the ways we get in trouble, and then there's this knee-jerk thing that gets the rest of us in trouble!

On the 4th this year, CSPAN radio played a recording of the US Supreme Court arguments in a case about the Establishment Clause, and the chaplaincy in the Nebraska State Legislature. The whole time, my husband and I were listening and cheering: "See, they PAY him! No one else has been considered for the job! He mentions Jesus Christ!" There were a thousand reasons (we thought) the Legislature was on the wrong road. But then lo and behold, the practice was upheld.

And thus we get a little shy of 'other people's' God, forgetting that it is our own as well. And if you're an atheist, there's got to be SOMEONE you hope will mend thine every flaw, isn't there ;) ?

Dani