I woke up this morning as usual with NPR blaring on my clock radio. The news this morning was interspersed with patriotic tunes and eventually a rather rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. I figured then was as good a time as any to finally get out of bed and as I stood and listened I realised I knew all the words to the anthem. Now you may not think this is terribly remarkable but you must understand that this immigrant brown boy has been under many a flag, has now learnt to sing three different national anthems in three very distinct languages and still not think twice about where home is. It’s right here.
I repeat this line often and I’ll say it again today: “America isn’t the promised land but it’s the best darn Babylon out there”.
So all of you who have never left its shores to see how remarkably lucky you are to be in a land that’s about as close to free as one could possibly get, you need to take a trip and perhaps finally understand what Neil Diamond was singing about when he said “They Come to America”.
So with that I will leave you with one thought: They call this great land, this wonderful country, my home - ’The Land of the Free’. All I ask is what have you done to keep it that way?
