WHY I LOVE HER

by John Mitchum

"America, America, God shed his grace on thee..."

You ask me Why I Love Her? Well, give me time and I'll explain.

Have you see a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?

Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?

Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?

Have you heard a bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines,

Or heard the bellow of a diesel at the Appalachia mines?

Does the call of the Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?

Do you look with awe and wonder at her Massachusetts shore,

Where men who braved a hard new world first stepped on Plymouth's rock?

Do you think of them when you stroll along a new York City dock?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies, way up high?

Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?

Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea,

Or bow your head at Gettysburg at our struggle to be free?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons? Have you watched an eagle soar?

Have you see the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?

Have you felt a chill at Michigan when on a winter's day

Her waters rage along the shore in thunderous display?

Does the word "Aloha" make you warm? Do you stare in disbelief

When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea Reef?

From Alaska's cold to the Everglades, from the Rio Grande to Maine,

My heart cries out, my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.

You ask me Why I Love Her? I've a million reasons why.

My Beautiful America, beneath God's wide, wide sky.

"And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea"

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2002