The Story of God Bless America

Thanks to my mom for sending this great story over.

Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing "God Bless America" on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.

Here are the facts... 

The link at the bottom will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of "GOD BLESS AMERICA".  But before you watch it, you should also know the story behind the first public showing of the song. 

The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we'd have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.

This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.

Kate was also large; plus size, as we now say, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings". Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time. 

Kate was also patriotic.    It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote "White Christmas") and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country.  When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her.

He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before - way back in 1917. He gave it to her and she worked on it with her studio orchestra.  She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America. Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.

This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, "You're In The Army Now."  At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; it's Ronald Reagan.

To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country.  Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry..... and for many generations of Americans to follow.  Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you'll enjoy it and treasure it even more.

Many people don't know there's a lead in to the song since it usually starts with "God Bless America....." So here's the entire song as originally sung.

Celebrating the 4th with Jefferson

Image via Wikipedia

In what may have been the most meaningful July 4th ever, we took the 3 kids on an 11 hour excursion to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson, as you know, drafted the Declaration of Independence, so that would have been significant enough. However, he also died on July 4th, 1826, so we were visiting his home on the 185th anniversary of his death.

Our kids are fascinated by many things Presidential and have, fortunately, developed an appreciated for history.

The highlight of the day, however, came as we were departing the Visitors Center, about to embark upon our 3.5 hour return journey and after close to 4 hours at the site.

Tonka turned to me and said:

“This was great. I’m really glad we came here.”

All of them were super travellers (thank God for the iPad on the road!) and a number of people on our tour of the mansion came up to me (they were the only kids in our group) to remark about not only how well behaved they were (including Nadia), but how interested they were in the guide’s presentation.

Admittedly, the guide did a great job, but it was just quite special to watch as they absorbed the information, took interest in Jefferson’s passions for reading, technology (this worked for me!), science, and, well, everything, and they LOVED the bit of trivia that it was Jefferson who brought both macaroni and cheese as well as vanilla ice cream to the US after his ministerial post in France.

They understood the potential of using this information to persuade the NFO to serve ice cream in the future!

The movie at the Visitors Center talked about slavery, Sally Hemings, etc. and the two older ones latched onto this topic, asking some great questions.

I just loved how they explored the grounds, seeking to understand why the wine/beer cellar would be underground, asking about bathrooms, the vegetable garden and having a chance to write with a quill pen.

A long, HOT and HUMID day, but a great one.

As we were departing, we saw seats being set up behind the main building and I assumed it would be for a mini fireworks show or something to that effect.

Turns out I was mistaken (not the first time) and it was to be the swearing in ceremony for 77 new Americans, which got me a bit choked up.

As we finished, the guide read a great quote written by Jefferson only a few days before his death, about July 4th:

“For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

I know it did for me, reconnecting me (and hopefully connecting my kids) to the eternal and beautiful ideals of what it means to be American and what America means to so many people.

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America’s Economic Forecast

The NFO sometimes accuses me of walking around with a “doom and gloom” view of America’s economic prospects.

In this video, casino mogul, Steve Wynn, shares why.

68 Years of Racial Perspective

On a plane to Atlanta this past Monday, I sat in between two sisters, both African-American.

One was 68 years old. The other was sleeping.

Anyway, the 68 year old and I started chatting (surprising, I know) and she told me about her childhood in rural Georgia.

She spent her entire childhood in segregated schools. Eventually, she wound up at SunTrust where she rose to the rank of Vice President.

Now, she's retired and volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.

I asked her about her perspective on the amount of racism in America.

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being how it was when she grew up and 10 being perfect harmony "ebony and ivory," I asked where it stood in three regions of the country.

• Georgia


• Maryland (where she has a sister living)


• New York City

She gave Georgia a 5. She gave Maryland a 6.

Then, a shocker. She gave New York City a 4.

I was intrigued.

Then a bit taken aback.

Her explanation as to the reason?

"Africans," she said.

She answered that the large number of African immigrants to New York City and their intolerance and condescending attitude toward American-born blacks/African-Americans (what have you) was at the root of the overall racial intolerance of New York City.

That certainly caught me off guard.

America on the decline?

My friend Josh, a graduate of St. John's College and a guy who knows a thing or two about a classical liberal arts education, submits the following. Thoughts?

I would submit that the American experiment is in the “complacency to dependency” stage as is evidenced by the over-reliance on government bailouts and total lack of consequences and free markets in today’s environment.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. Those nations always progress through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith,
• from spiritual faith to great courage,
• from great courage to liberty,
• from liberty to abundance,
• from abundance to selfishness,
• from selfishness to complacency,
• from complacency to dependency,
• from dependency back into bondage."

–Alexander Fraser Tytler Lord Woodhouselee (1748-1813), "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic", Scottish historian at Edinburgh University

Is America Really Worth It?

After reading about the events at Walmart in NY where a man was killed by a Black Friday mob looking for a deal (and seeing this video), my initial reaction was:

If this is the state of American culture, why bother preserving it?

I know (hope) that was knee-jerk, but man...what does this say about our overly materialistic society.

Malcolm X (Movie review)

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaIt's been said before, but Denzel Washington is THE MAN.

He just did a superb job in this movie. It's worth seeing for that alone.

Back in high school, I had read the Autobiography of Malcolm X and remember having a certain impression. He was a radical, an extremist, a racist.

I thought the Spike Lee movie about Malcolm X  did a fair job of changing my impression.

It provided context without being overly biased. It enriched my understanding of the Black struggles of the '60's. I like how it explored some of the black on black issues and how those played a factor as well.

It's a two-disc set (and took me 3 nights to watch), but the story was engrossing and well worth it.

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LiveTweeting Obama’s Speech

Was using Twitter and watching my friends’ twitter streams during Obama’s speech. One of the most fun times I’ve had. Felt like I was part of a community activity.

Here is part of the stream…

 

Of course, I wasn’t the only one, which led to this message.

Importing Olympians of Another Kind...

Image via Wikipedia The recent posts/comments on the blog about the changing nature of the Olympics and how coaches are imported to the US and athletes to various countries perhaps planted a seed.

With the NFO away at dance camp, a mini "perfect storm" of activity came down on Wed. morning.

The kids are off from school until next week.

We had Jorge, from Bolivia, fixing the lights (those that had been the cause of the Fire Dept. visit.)

Lorena, repping Guatemala, had moved her usual cleaning day to come in and tidy up the house (since Jorge's work was creating a bit larger mess than usual) and prep for our esteemed weekend guests.

Lastly, our stalwart Amharic speaking (Ethiopia native) Nanny is playing zone on the 3 kids.

This is the FOJ Domestic Assistance Olympic Team, all imports as well.

Anyway, after coordinating the activities (they all arrived at 8.30am), and getting the kids settled, I turned to 2 of them and asked:

"Are you guys working for free today?"

They looked at me with a perplexed look, sensing the humor in my voice.

Jorge said: "I wish we could."

"I figured," I replied. "So, if it is ok with you, I am going to go down to the mancave and try to figure out how to pay for all of you!"

Seriously, it reminded me of the other "house full of immigrants" days (part 1 and 2) and gave me one of those perspective enhancing moments to appreciate our country.

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