Speaking of other people, William Raspberry wrote an interesting column about this song in the Washington Post last Monday (July 5, 2004). Here are a couple of quotes from his piece:
"I'll know that today is the "Fourth of July" (no matter what the calendar insists) when I hear my friend's stereo pulsing out "America the Beautiful. The Ray Charles version, of course." ...."Charles transformed the holiday for me -- from the Norman Rockwell tableaux that never seemed to include anyone who looked like me -- to a holiday for all Americans"
   Sorry I can't make a link to the page, but you have to log in to www.washingtonpost.com to read the column, and after one week it may be archived to a diferent location on the site. I found it today (after logging in) by clicking on the "opinion" link near the top of the page, then "columnists" on the left of the page and scrolling down to William Raspberry's name