AMERICA, MADE OF AWESOME

Some young people just don’t seem to know
that freedom is the only way to go.
With minds addled by tired lies,
and not experience enough to realize
that when everything is said and done,
America is made of awesome.

They’re told to fixate and lock in
on only our past mistakes and sins.
They rant about how we had slaves,
forgetting we fought to end that plague.
Did the Romans ever do that much?
Did the Byzantines or other such
great empires of the eons passed
ever bother to get off their ass?
Did the Arabs or Turks free such men?
Hell no, they enslaved more than Europeans!
And even now, in this present day
the Islamists still claim God allows slaves?!

But our nation from the beginning
knew freedom’s fight was worth winning.
Eighty years of struggle, at high cost,
but freedom won, and bondage lost.

It was not the only battle fought,
or the only harsh lesson taught.
We made mistakes with the Indians,
but now we call them countrymen.
Women once knew not the vote,
now of this and more they boast.
Jim Crow once claimed southern lands,
so we ran it down, despite Democratic hands
holding up the great, finishing blow,
but they failed at that, now it’s no more.
Against external foes we soldiered on,
from Nazi filth to Socialist thralls.
The Nazis we put in the grave,
and outlasted the Reds until they caved
into the crushing, inevitably misery
that always follows their ideology.

The trend I think is plain to see,
when evil rises, so do we.
Though it may take years, even decades
we push on until it is unmade.
This is what our schools should teach,
and people everywhere should preach.
To reject it all due to past mistakes,
a certain type of fool it takes.
To expect perfection from a species flawed
goes against human nature’s laws.
Be glad your nation still fights wrong
when most go along to get along…

But enough of redigesting old days gone,
let’s go on to what makes us awesome…

Freedom foremost, and the will to fight
to keep and protect our natural rights.
Nightclubs, jello shots, disco balls
mechanical bulls, beers cold and tall!
Baseball, football, and basketball games,
crazy rodeo riders on horses untamed.
Books by the millions, more than can be read,
and knowing anything can be by anyone said.
Burgers on buns, potato and tortilla chips,
yeah, those are American, born in Texas!
Satirical cartoons, radio and TV,
the magic that was Hollywood, as it used to be.
Ragtime, Bee-bop, Rockabilly, and Jazz
Swing, R & B, movie soundtracks, and Bluegrass.
The warm blanket of country when feeling cold,
the power and fury of rock and roll.
The grind of hip-hop and of rap…
on second thought, we apologize for that.
But funk gets things all out of control,
and who can say no to harmonious soul?
Stream locomotives, tracks narrow and wide,
flying machines that soar through the sky.
The glorious art that is the western,
and old Las Vegas, the moral tester.
The miracle of southern barbeque,
the burn of moonshine, or Mountain Dew.
Soft ice crew and greasy-fast French fries,
the expectation that politicians lie.
Liberty in law deeply enshrined,
muscle cars driving of the right side.
Suburbs, cabins, farms and guns,
and every legally available type of fun.
Forests, combines, and big chain-saws,
as well as full equality before the law.
A vast landscape, awesome to see,
an undying faith in our families.
Art from great down to lackluster,
recalls, vetos, and filibusters!
Checks and balances on the powerful,
we invented the internet, so things are never dull!
Mountain bikes and rollers blades,
fried chicken and biscuits, porterhouse steak.
Diners, dairy bars and fast food,
we walked on the friggin’ moon,
and built the only probes that escaped
into the void of interstellar space.

I could go on, I am tempted to,
but I think I’ve made my point to you,
And when young fool have yelled there fill,
reject their nonsense talk of “guilt.”
All nations have screwed up, it’s so
but perfection is something man never knows.
This nation still tires to confront is sins,
and brings forth profusions of great things.
The scales upon which we are weighed,
are ever clear in what they say:
When it all is said and done,
America is made of awesome.