America The Beautiful

O 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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O 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 every gain divine!

O 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!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice, for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O 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
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

I sung this song with my children last week, The words that I have put in italics really stood out to me. I wonder how far we are as a country from this vision. I wonder if the founding fathers are looking down on us with their heads shaking. Our union will fall apart if the majority of the people do not live godly morals and worship the one true God.

I am LDS, I profess the truth of my faith, but I will state that I believe that conversion to one faith is not needed for our country to stand, what I believe is that we must all hold to our mosaic of Judeo Christian beliefs, love our neighbors and serve our God. He will protect us if we do just that.

A turning point.

While I have limited my discussion of political hot issues, this story seemed worth posting:

So, all of the Bush haters and Obama lovers. First I know he made some mistakes, if anything we should have gone into Iraq with 2x the force we did, yeah that's right, 2x. It seems that the tide has finally turned. I hope this lasts and I hope our next president isn't a coward. We need to finish what we started to give the Iraqi people a fighting chance at their own style of democracy. I have nothing but praise for our men in arms who patrol the streets side by side with the Iraqi military. They know that at any minute they should be injured or killed, but they do it to protect the homeland and that is exactly what they are doing.

I sincerely hope that their are good leaders among the Iraqi people who are willing to put the needs of the populous above their own personal gain.