Happy Birthday U.S.A.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Happy Birthday U.S.A.

Kings stink. Long live democracy.

Proud American here.

Happy 4th of July everybody. I'm heading to the beach to drink a beer.

-> clink! <- (if bottles)
-> tonk! <- (if cans)
-> thunk! <- (if plastic coffee mugs)

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Happy Birthday U.S.A.

Wow! 232 years young. 232 is the new .......! You look good. Did you lose some weight by walking with the higher gas prices?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Happy Birthday U.S.A.

Last year, I wrote:

America: my country, right or wrong.

But think about the entire quote that those words come from:

"My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."
-- Senator Carl Schurz, Feb 29, 1872, remarks in the Senate

If it's broke... we fix it.

I poked around and found a more complete version of Schurz's words, which I like even better:

The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, “My country, right or wrong.” In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.

(link)

(I hadn't known anything about Carl Schurz except for that quote, but was fascinated by what I learned once I started looking. A student revolutionary in the failed German Revolutions of 1848, Carl Schurz fled Germany and in 1853 emigrated to the USA. He was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War; afterward, he was a newspaperman, spent a term in the Senate as the junior Senator from Missouri, then was U.S. Interior Secretary in the Hayes Administration.)

[Random]

Re: Happy Birthday U.S.A.

Kings stink.

Except King Kamehameha.

Long Live the Kingdom of Hawai'i.