See also the questions on songs and theme music.
Where the Wild Roses Grow
This song is a modern reinterpretation of the Appalachian murder ballad Down in the Willow Garden.
On the surface, murder ballads may seem to glamorize crime, but in fact they were a way of memorializing the victim or swearing vengeance against the killer. Like their Celtic forebears, the people of Appalachia placed great stock in justice, and were entirely willing to go outside the law to obtain it.
Amazing Grace
From its beginnings, America was known as a place for second chances; people from all over the world sought to leave their pasts behind and start over as cowboys, miners, or railway workers. A person's past didn't matter, but a reputation for fairness and hard work was everything. At the same time, the frontier was a surprisingly small place; in spite of its vast expanses, everyone knew everyone else. Repentance was expected to be genuine. If you simply moved to a new location and repeated past mistakes, you would soon find that your reputation preceded you.
Big Bad John
The mystique of rugged individualism developed on the frontier. As much as independence and self-reliance were valued, however, responsibility and self-sacrifice were valued more. Big John was modeled on the frontier heroes, many of them anonymous or forgotten, who quietly stepped up when they were needed, without expectation of fanfare or reward.
All gave some, and some gave all.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War
Christianity has never been pacifist. (Exodus 20:13 is most accurately translated, “You shall not commit an unjustified killing.”) It has rightly been said that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, and the same is true of the Bible. This pragmatism is why the Bible expects citizens to participate in their nation's wars.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War is one of many martial hymns. It can be set to a number of different melodies. Perhaps the best choice is The Minstrel Boy, which has long been associated with Irish regiments in the British, United States, and other armies. Danny Dravot sang this hymn to the tune of The Minstrel Boy in Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King.
America the Beautiful
At the end of the day, this is what it's all about. No other country has ever compared to America. No one else has ever done so well carrying the burdens of great power status while advancing freedom at home and around the world. No other world power, from Akkad to Rome to Britain, has a cleaner human-rights record or has done more good in the course of maintaining world peace.
America isn't perfect. It is, after all, made up of people, and people are flawed. But those who hate America have yet to find a better model to hold up to the world.
God Bless America
Because we are One Nation Under God; because no nation without faith can survive the coming crises; because without common values, America will shatter when confronted with a threat that cannot be overcome by sending mercenaries to do a citizen's duty. If God does not bless America with unity and common purpose, then we will each go our own way, following our own road to extinction.
Love of country, love of God, love of our neighbors, love of ourselves: All these build the strength of community. Self-haters lack that strength, and seldom survive times of true crisis.
The Star-Spangled Banner
They say it's darkest just before the dawn. It must have seemed dark indeed to American soldiers in 1814, when Napoleon had been defeated and thousands of battle-hardened British veterans were arriving from the battlefields of Europe for a fresh offensive against the United States. Washington had been sacked, other cities looted, and the East Coast blockaded. U.S. soldiers had been defeated by British in almost every engagement, and the U.S. couldn't even attempt to engage the Royal Navy on the high seas. Thus, when the British turned their attention to Baltimore, there seemed little chance of repelling them. The defenders of Fort Warburton destroyed their own fortifications and fled. But Fort McHenry stood.
The British fleet simply stood off the coast and bombarded the defenders from beyond the range of the fort's guns. Unable to fight back, the Americans took fire for twenty-five hours. When morning dawned, the flag was still flying above the ramparts of Fort McHenry. The defenders would not withdraw. Close-range bombardment proved no more successful, and attempts to bypass the fort failed. Without artillery support from the fleet, the British army attacking Baltimore was forced to withdraw. Three months later, Britain signed a peace treaty.
Never surrender. Never give up hope.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
America has never gone to war lightly. Even the Revolution was long in coming. As the Declaration of Independence states:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
When we do go to war, however, we must do so whole-heartedly, unreservedly, holding nothing back. We did so in the Revolution, in the Civil War, in World War I and World War II. We did not in Korea or Vietnam, in Iraq or Afghanistan. And as a result, we lost.
Never go to war unless you are prepared to give it all you've got. Successful prosecution of war requires the total commitment of national resources, a complete focus on war to the exclusion of all else – full mobilization of the nation's manpower and of the people's will against the enemy.
As Sun Tzu said, war is of vital importance to the State; it is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Defeat in war threatens a nation's very survival.
American Soldier
An army is made up of soldiers. Ultimately, a nation's security and freedom rest not with kings and generals, but with the individual soldiers who are willing to step up and do their duty, who advance on command, who return fire rather than crouching at the bottom of the foxhole when no one will notice, who take the hill on their own initiative rather than claiming to be pinned down by enemy fire. Unless one side has overwhelming superiority in firepower or numbers, victory is determined by soldiers' will to combat.
Soldiers fight for many reasons: Patriotism, love of family, honor, pride, hatred of the enemy, even greed. Democracy, however, depends on them fighting for one reason: Loyalty to their people. A democracy depends on citizen-soldiers who care more about the people of their nation than about their rulers or their officers. When the connection between the people and the military is weak, when soldiers come only from one segment of society or when most citizens have never served in the military, then democracy is threatened. A government of the people cannot make intelligent decisions about the needs of Armed Forces it does not understand. Those who have never served and do not have close friends or family who have served will not understand the stresses of combat, of prolonged deployment, of defending a populace that does not comprehend their sacrifices.
God Bless the USA
It all comes together in common purpose, and a common love for the land we live in – the freest country in the world; the only nation on Earth willing to sacrifice to defend freedom not only at home but throughout the world.
Or, as the case may be, fails to come together. And that's the choice that awaits us: Whether to emphasize our differences or our similarities; whether to hold together or fragment into a hundred squabbling factions; whether to survive. Do we strive for the common good, or for individual gain? Is self-sacrifice a virtue for heroes or for fools? Or do we simply refuse to decide, allowing the currents to wash us wherever they will, surrendering to chance, fate, and the survival of the fittest?
