To help put our celebration of independence into proper perspective, I present Aladdin from last week's show reciting the inspirational poem "I Am the United States"
I don't know who originally wrote this, but if I ever do, I like to thank him or her for writing this for everyone to share and be inspired!
I am the United States.
I was born on July 4, 1776
and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate.
The bloodlines of the world run in my veins
because I offered freedom to the oppressed
I am many things and many people.
I am the United States.
I am 180 million living souls
and the ghosts of millions who have lived and died for me.
I am Nathan Hale, Paul Revere, Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry
I am John Paul Jones, The Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett
I am Independence Hall,the Monitor and the Merrimac
I am Lee, Grant and Abe Lincoln.
I remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor.
When freedom called I answered and stayed until it was over
over there.
I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas
and the granite hills of Vermont.
I am the coal fields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania
the fertile lands of the West
the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon.
Ohhhh I am big, I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Three million square miles throbbing with industry
I am George Washington Carver, Daniel Webster and Jonas Salk
I am more than 170,000 schools and colleges
and 250,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best
I am the roar of a crowd in a stadium
and the voice of a choir in a cathedral
I am Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower
and John F. Kennedy.
Yes, I am the nation and these are the things that I am.
I was conceived in freedom
and God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days.
May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength
to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom
and a beacon of hope to the world.
I AM THE UNITED STATES.
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