Dear Lady America,
Clothed in the Constitution of the United States of America and under garmented with its amendments, you are being celebrated because you’ve consistently stood up in a period spanning over 500 years of various contentions and victories on your vast, rich land — the embodiment of your soul.
Your Liberty Bell first sounded when one Christopher Columbus made a proposal and one Queen Isabella gave acceptance — both thus entering into the spirit of unity, foresight and courage, to become the founding Father and Mother of what is now known as the Grand old U.S.A.
I call you”Lady” at this significant and memorable time in our history with intent not to classify, but rather to characterize because you’ve borne so well the agonies and tears of home-front battles. You have absorbed the earthly shocks of the continuous rise and fall of endless industries and governments over your majestic geographic facade. Then you so bravely tell the sagas of personal failures, defeats and the ultimate successes constantly churning away in the very womb of your continental being!
I know that your countless labor pains are not in vain, dear Lady, because in your sonorous cry for each dying child is contained, as well, the sustaining ingredient of great joy for each new birth, which becomes the budding salvation of the beloved nation that you so stoically represent — the future leadership of your grand and united household.
... and like a wondrous woman, monumentally protective of her dependent children, you’ve somehow maternally guarded, unceasingly, your “own” from otherwise annihilating dangers through many terrible wars — and by the unfathomable aspects of your so-called “mystique,” you managed to keep the archenemy of mankind from dominating even your sandy shores!
The most fitting prayer that can be invoked now is the positive realization that no matter what happens, we know that while on your soil, under your stars, and in the shade of your “everlasting arms,” Providence will always endure, protect and provide!
Our hope for the sometimes nebulous future is evidenced by this glorious day — one which God hath made — making this and every day your special day, America.
And so, to thee I proudly say, “You have every inalienable right to stand as tall as you are; your Bell of Freedom will ring out your imperative voice forever — and Liberty will always be your name!”
Thane Cornell, a Carson City resident, is a dance choreographer and veteran of the United States Navy.
