Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea.

Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat, Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm they soul in self control, Thy liberty in law.

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved, In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine.

Oh, beautiful for patriot dream, That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea.

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thru the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
If full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

s My grandpa, William E. Wesley (in the white shirt), flew DC3s in the Pacific Theater 1944-45. It was a frightful time, when the “Evil Doers” were the Germans and Japanese. “Wes” had only one brother – he fought with the U.S. Army in the European theater, and was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. World War II was not just hard on the military overseas. Families at home worried about their loved ones doing the fighting. My great grandparents had only two sons, one in Germany, one in Guam, at the same time. Before they both made it home, they must have worried every minute, every day about their lives. The sacrifices made by Americans and our allies during WWII made the world a greater place and I will always be grateful for that generation’s hard work and sacrifice. Now we face a new “Evil Force.” We need to show courage and protect the free world as the WWII generation did 60 years ago. -Justin Grant, Blaine High School, 11th Grade.

God Bless America

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:
God Bless America.
Land that I love
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies ,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home