America the beautiful

September 21, 2001 9:04 PM

America the beautiful Note the lines, please, to mend thine every flaw...But still, well, you know what I am saying. I am old enough to have been in the army when blacks were in separate outfits; and I served later, again, when they were integrated. And I knew Yale had a quota for Jess (a friend made it!) and now they have a Jewish president. It ain't perfect but it beats the place my grandparents fled years ago to find a new life.
posted by Postroad (2 comments total)

yes, i find it comforting to think of the progress we have made. as for the current situation:

Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
posted by centrs at 10:16 PM on September 21, 2001

Lyricist Katharine Lee Bates was a Wellesley alum (there's a dorm named after her) and every time we sung it on campus, we substituted "sisterhood" for the word "brotherhood". Some who were more radical would change the God pronouns to female also. (One of my friends was appalled because she said it was disrespectful to change the words as written by an alum.)

On David Letterman, Dan Rather mentioned that singing the line "thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears" would evoke much different emotions now.
posted by girlhacker at 11:26 AM on September 22, 2001