Yearlong Song Challenge, Day 90: Nate

Prompt: "A song about American history"

Selected by Nate

"Into the Conquering Sun"

Ted Leo & Jeppesen Airplane

single, 2021

Take pride in America. Take pride in its origins, in its messy compromise of a system that was in and of itself a revolution of organization. Take pride in its progress, its accomplishments, the things it has gotten right, and if you are the kind of person who can find it, in all that it has gotten wrong. Take pride in its flawed system. Take pride in those willing to participate with it and in it, flaws and all. Take pride in the kind of person willing to work to improve the flaws against impossible odds. Take pride in those who wish to dismantle it, in those who see no errors in it. It's alright to be horrified by America. Horrified by the blood spilled in its name, horrified of its history, horrified of its present, horrified of its future. Take solace in the fact that you are America. Every day you get to decide what America is, what it might mean to other people, what it stands for, how it stands for it. This is pollyanna but true. This is Hallmark, Kevin Costner shit, but it's true. What is a government other than an organization of people? What is a country beyond the things one interacts with daily? Be America, and take pride in it. The notion of patriotism is being warped. There is a way to be proud and acknowledge failures, to stand by ideals in spite of what's carried out in their name. America is a religion, whether we like it or not, and to be born on these shores is to be baptized in this catechism. Find a way to make it meaningful, or be crushed by those who would seek to define it.