Ragged Old Flag: One Nation Under God!

 

Ragged Old Flag

By Johnny Cash

I walked through a county courthouse square,

on a park bench an old man was sittin' there.

I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down.”

He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town.”

I said, "Your old flag pole has leaned a little bit,

and that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hangin' on it".

 

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.

"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"

I said, "I think it is"

He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of

that Ragged Old Flag

 

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,

when Washington took it across the Delaware.

And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,

writing "Oh Say Can You See".

And it got a bad rip in New Orleans,

with Packingham & Jackson tugging at its seams.

 

And it almost fell at the Alamo

beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,

and she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.

There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,

and the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag

 

“On Flanders Field in World War I,

she got a big hole from a Bertha Gun.

She turned blood red in World War II.

She hung limp and low, by the time it was through.

She was in Korea, and Vietnam.

She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.

 

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,

and now they've about quit wavin' her back here at home.

In her own good land, she's been abused -

she's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused.

And the government for which she stands

has been scandalized throughout out the land.

And she's getting threadbare, and she's wearin' thin,

but she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.

Cause she's been through the fire before

and I believe she can take a whole lot more.

 

"So we raise her up every morning,

and we bring her down slow every night,

We don't let her touch the ground,

and we fold her up right.

On second thought, I do like to brag,

cause I'm mighty proud of

that Ragged Old Flag"

Happy July 4^th

God bless America!