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 the United States of America.  
 
     I am 300 plus million living souls and the ghosts of millions who have lived and fought and died for me.  
     
     I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere, I stood at Lexington and fired  the shot heard round the world.  I am John Paul Jones, the Green  Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett.  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. I left my heroic dead on the  bleak shores of Korea and Viet Nam, in Flanders Field, the Rock of  Corregidor and the desert sands of Kuwait.  
 
     I am the  Brooklyn Bridge.  The wheat fields of Kansas the granite hills of  Vermont.  I am the coal mines of the Virginians and Pennsylvania, the  fertile lands of the west, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am  Independence Hall, the Monitor, the Merrimac and the Challenger.
  
     Oh, yes - I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific,  three million square miles of land,  throbbing with industry. I am more  than two million farms,  I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am  quiet villages and cities that never sleep. You can look at me and see  Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his loaf of  bread under his arm.  You can see Betsy Ross with her needle, You can  see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" as  the calendar turns.
 
     I am Babe Ruth and the World Series,  170,000 schools and colleges and more than 300,000 churches, where my  people worship God as they choose.  I am a ballot dropped into a box,  the roar of a crowd in a stadium, the voice of a choir in a cathedral.  I  am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to congress.  
 
      I am John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and the fellow astronauts who whirl  through space above my head.  I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster, Tom  Edison, Albert Einstein, Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Yes, I  am the nation and these are the things that I am.   I was conceived in  freedom and, god willing, in freedom I shall spend the rest of my days.   May I always possess the integrity, the courage and the strength to  keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom, and a beacon of  hope for all the world?
 
     I am the United States
                   -Author Unknown
 
 
 
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 the United States of America.  
 
     I am 300 plus million living souls and the ghosts of millions who have lived and fought and died for me.  
     
     I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere, I stood at Lexington and fired
 the shot heard round the world.  I am John Paul Jones, the Green 
Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett.  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. I left my heroic dead on the 
bleak shores of Korea and Viet Nam, in Flanders Field, the Rock of 
Corregidor and the desert sands of Kuwait.  
 
     I am the 
Brooklyn Bridge.  The wheat fields of Kansas the granite hills of 
Vermont.  I am the coal mines of the Virginians and Pennsylvania, the 
fertile lands of the west, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am 
Independence Hall, the Monitor, the Merrimac and the Challenger.
  
     Oh, yes - I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
three million square miles of land,  throbbing with industry. I am more 
than two million farms,  I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am 
quiet villages and cities that never sleep. You can look at me and see 
Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his loaf of 
bread under his arm.  You can see Betsy Ross with her needle, You can 
see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" as 
the calendar turns.
 
     I am Babe Ruth and the World Series, 
170,000 schools and colleges and more than 300,000 churches, where my 
people worship God as they choose.  I am a ballot dropped into a box, 
the roar of a crowd in a stadium, the voice of a choir in a cathedral.  I
 am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to congress.  
 
    
 I am John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and the fellow astronauts who whirl 
through space above my head.  I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster, Tom 
Edison, Albert Einstein, Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Yes, I
 am the nation and these are the things that I am.   I was conceived in 
freedom and, god willing, in freedom I shall spend the rest of my days. 
 May I always possess the integrity, the courage and the strength to 
keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom, and a beacon of 
hope for all the world?
 
     I am the United States
      
             -Author Unknown