Jukebox: American Election Edition

Internet and Power have been unpredictable as of late, so I’m slow on this post. However, the US election has provoked me to play “The House I Live In” by Paul Robeson. I can think of no song that makes me feel more proud to be an American than this one. I also feel that it is quite apropriate following the victory of Barack Obama.

The House I Live In

Written by Abel Meeropol

What is America to me?
A name, a map, the flag I see;
A certain word, democracy.
What is America to me?

The house I live in,
A plot of earth, a street,
The grocer and the butcher,
And the people that I meet;
The children in the playground,
The faces that I see,
All races, all religions,
That’s America to me.

The place I work in,
The workers at my side,
The little town or city
Where my people lived and died.
The howdy and the handshake,
The air of feeling free,
The right to speak my mind out,
That’s America to me.

The words of old Abe Lincoln,
Of Jefferson and Paine,
Of Washington and Douglas
And the tasks that still remain;
The little bridge at Concord,
Where Freedom’s fight began,
Our Gettysburg and Midway
And the story of Bataan.

The town I live in,
The street, the house, the room,
The pavement of the city,
Or a garden all in bloom;
The church, the school, the clubhouse,
The million lights I see,
But especially the people;
That’s America to me.
But especially the people;
That’s America to me.