I was playing around on the piano tonight … not with any particular song in mind when I started to play, “Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words” and as I got about halfway through, it morphed into “God Bless America.” I didn’t intend to put the two together, but they fit perfectly. Once I realized what I’d done, I thought, “How fitting… isn’t this what our country needs right now?”

Let us oft speak kind words to each other
At home or where ‘er we may be;
Like the warblings of birds on the heather,
The tones will be welcome and free.
…
From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with foam.
God bless America,
My home sweet home.

Like the sunbeams of morn on the mountains,
the soul they awake to good cheer;
Like the murmur of cool, pleasant fountains,
They fall in sweet cadences near.
…
From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with foam.
God bless America,
My home sweet home

Copyright: Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words, Text: Joseph L. Townsend, 1849-1942. Music: Ebenezer Beesley, 1840-1906. God Bless America written by Irving Berlin.