The making of ‘America the Beautiful’

NY Post ^ | 07/03/2018 | NY Post Editorial Board

[DFG]

Katharine Lee Bates, a 33-year-old English literature teacher at Wellesley College, was on “a merry expedition up Pike’s Peak” in Colorado in 1893 when she looked out “over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies.”

In an instant, she said, “the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” Those lines became “America the Beautiful” — a song that will be featured today in countless parades and band concerts.

Everyone knows the first verse, with its evocation of “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties.” But how many have read — let alone sung — the entire song?

The full hymn is more than just a poetic appreciation of the country’s wonders of nature. It evokes the vitality of an ever-widening America, celebrates its storied past and — most important — evokes its limitless future potential.

[GnuThere]

They ask how many people have read or sung the entire song?
Good grief, since grade school I think. How out of touch are they? I love this song.

[loveliberty2]

Another beautiful reminder for all of us on this "Independence Day." Thank you!!

Here is another:

"Ideas have consequences." - Weaver

Although the July 1776 Declaration of Independence from government power over individuals was clear and unequivocal, decades of liberal/progressive efforts to censor, erase and deny the underlying ideas of liberty upon which the U. S. Constitution was framed have had consequences.

Our Constitution embodied a UNIQUE IDEA. Nothing like it had ever been done before. The power of the idea was in the recognition that people's rights are granted directly by the Creator - not by the state - and that the people, then, and only then, grant rights to government. The concept is so simple, yet so very fundamental and far-reaching.

CREATOR

People

Government

America's founders embraced a previously unheard-of political philosophy which held that people are "...endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights.." This was the statement of guiding principle for the new nation, and, as such, had to be translated into a concrete charter for government. The Constitution of The United States of America became that charter.

Other forms of government, past and present, rely on the state as the grantor of human rights. America's founders, however, believed that a government made up of imperfect people exercising power over other people should possess limited powers. Through their Constitution, they wished to "secure the blessings of liberty" for themselves and for posterity by limiting the powers of government. Through it, they delegated to government only those rights they wanted it to have, holding to themselves all powers not delegated by the Constitution. They even provided the means for controlling those powers they had granted to government.

This was the unique American idea. Many problems we face today result from a departure from this basic con­cept. Gradually, other "ideas" have influenced legislation which has reversed the roles and given government greater and greater power over individuals. Early generations of Americans pledged their lives to the cause of in­dividual freedom and limited government and warned, over and over again, that eternal vigilance would be required to preserve that freedom for posterity.

---

Footnote: "Our Ageless Constitution," W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III:  ISBN 0-937047-01-5

[outofsalt]

I’ve read that the music was composed by Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The article credits Samuel Howe, also a church organist from Newark.

[Midwesterner53]

Wellesley College today would fire any staff member who wrote a positive word about America.

[Steven Scharf]

The article gave him the wrong last name.

[minnesota_bound]

The St Paul, Minnesota mayor cancelled July 4th fireworks saying it was too expensive at $100,000. He hired 3 of his friends at over $100k. They are also over 700 pages x 50 people making over 100k
http://www.mnpay.org Click on Descending and then Search
U of M salaries are very large.

He also said he found the words in the Star Spangled Banner to be too violent. He is a democrat.