GregA says:

#1,

I don’t know… This weekend I was at the Lake. My son wanted to play on a neighbors trampoline. If it wasn’t for youtube I would have let him play. However the abundance of broken bones Ive seen during trampoline play on youtube, made me think twice about letting him play on the trampoline. A little gir about 6 swiftly jumped off of the trampoline, got the wind knocked out of her and spent the rest of the day inside.

In my case youtube has provided a public service.

rectagon says:

OLD!!! This is already a couple years old. Still funny.. but old

OhForTheLoveOf says:

#5 – I don’t know… It is a good poem. It doesn’t really translate into a good song. I always thought we needed a better national anthem.

And like the flag, its just a song… One person’s respect or disrespect of the symbols doesn’t change the thing the symbol represents.

OhForTheLoveOf says:

#7 – Were it not for the gratuitous God references, I’d rather sing America The Beautiful.

If I were King of America, however, I’d choose Democracy by Leonard Cohen.

It’s coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It’s coming from the feel
that this ain’t exactly real,
or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don’t pretend to understand at all.
It’s coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin’
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It’s coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It’s here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it’s here they got the spiritual thirst.
It’s here the family’s broken
and it’s here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we’ll be making love again.
We’ll be going down so deep
the river’s going to weep,
and the mountain’s going to shout Amen!
It’s coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on …

I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I’m junk but I’m still holding up
this little wild bouquet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.