I was always so inspired by America, and Americans.
Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth. Poe, Hawthorne, Melville. Thomas Paine. Twain, Vonnegut, Thurber, Runyon, Lardner. Ali. Jim Thorpe. Jesse Owens, Josh Gibson, Ted Williams. Dylan, Springsteen, Hendrix, Petty. James Baldwin. Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Rosetta Tharpe, Elizabeth Cotton. Paul Simon. The Grateful Dead. Martin Luther King. Janis Joplin. Phil Ochs. Salinger. Bukowski. Eddie Cochran. Hank Greenberg. Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sam Phillips. Ani Difranco. Sam Cooke. Hagler, Leonard, Hearns. Venus and Serena. Babe Didrickson. Billie Jean King. McEnroe. Ashe. Jimmy Brown. James Brown. Stevie Wonder. Emily Dickinson. Ray Charles. Count Basie. Rod Serling, Humphrey Bogart. Groucho, Chico, Harpo and sometimes Zeppo. Jack Nicholson. Orson Wells. Bill Russell. Bird and Magic and Jordan. Kobe and Steph and LeBron.
Muhammad Ali, Lucille Ball, Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Woody Guthrie
Deniro and Hoffman and Lenny Bruce and Pacino and George Carlin and Richard Pryor. Lucille Ball and Whoopi Goldberg and Sarah Silverman. Mean Joe Greene and Gale Sayers and Walter Payton and Joe Namath. Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Tom Brady. Wilt Chamberlain. Marlon Brando. James Dean. Meryl Streep. Lorne Michaels. Larry David. Taylor Swift. Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson. Althea Gibson. Houdini. Tiger Woods. Joe Louis. Ben Franklin. Thomas Edison. Flannery O’Connor. Miles Davis. Etta James. Hunter Thompson. Jimmy Carter. Hoagy Carmichael. Branford Marsalis. Tupac, Biggie, Eminem. Cher. Greg Louganis. Scott Joplin. Hemingway. Fitzgerald. Pete Seeger. John Lewis. Eric Ward. Leonard Bernstein. Woody Guthrie. Sojourner Truth.
To name a few.
Now whatta we got?
Trump? Vance? Bannon? Mike Johnson? Marjorie Taylor Greene?
God help us.
God help us.
And yet.
And yet.
Look again at the long lists above. There is power in those names. Power. Strength. Vitality. Beauty.
That’s the America I’m part of. You’re part of. That’s what’s real.
Not some temporary pikers. Fly-by-night interlopers from a Twain short story, appearing from the pits of hell to rob everyone of their last cent before they’re finally run out of town.
Rosa Parks. Louis Armstrong. Jackie Robinson. Hank Greenberg. Mark Twain. Sojourner Truth.
There’s your real America. Your enduring America. There’s your real power.
Hold them in your hearts.
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“America, My Home”:
Gotta add one to that long list of great Americans…Daniel Bernsteinn 💜
You nailed it perfectly!
Those you named are the TRUE American’s!!!