Happy Birthday to America
To a place that I've called home
Since the day when I was welcomed
By that lady with the torch made of stone
It was late October
of 1955
When after eight days of sailing
On a liner named for a Queen
In the distance, a sea of hands waving
It was a crowd that
eagerly waited for
"The poor, the tired, the huddled masses,"
Yearning to breathe new freedom
From a nation that none surpasses
A nation that was
built
From all the others who came before
Thanking their respective Maker
Giving more than taking from its bountiful store
A store that’s filled
with many riches
A land that was blessed by God
I would start my education
In my new and fertile sod
Oh, we struggled at
the beginning
Trying so hard to assimilate
Never asking for a bit of Uncle Sam's help
No free handouts; we just had faith
It was different then
My working mom was an exception
People cared for one another
They provided support and needed affection
I don’t know what has
happened
But I see how things have changed
That exception became the norm
The family unit has been assailed
Communication was not
a problem
Even among the politicians
Now the two parties cannot agree
Acting like two competing morticians
Oh, what’s happened
to my adopted country
The one that's always led the way
In civility and democracy
Now all around there's moral decay
Happy Birthday to America
I now find it hard to sing
"Cause neither liberal nor conservative
Can agree on a flipping thing
Happy Birthday to America
We seem to have lost our way
It's no longer a land for the people
It's Wall St. and corporations who get their say
So as I celebrate
this birthday
Singing "My country 'tis of thee"
I shed some tears of sadness
At the erosion of that "sweet land of liberty."
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