“God Bless America.”

Those are the lyrics with which almost every musician concludes his or her performance at the Grandell Nursing Home, where my mother resides. Even the rabbi who conducts a weekly discussion group at the Grandell ends his program by inviting the residents to sing “God Bless America.” Having sat through a lot of renditions of this song over the past two years, I always find it curious what a strong reaction it gets from the audience. Everyone seems to join in, even people who rarely communicate with others.

God Bless America is hardly a theological statement. It was written by Jewish immigrant named Irving Berlin who is probably best known for his other great work – “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” It is not so much a prayer as it is a statement of hope for our country.

The words of God Bless America resonate for the residents of the Grandell. Maybe that’s because they are part of “the greatest generation.” They have a different perception of America than most young people today. They remember the great depression. Many of them are veterans or the spouses of veterans from the Second World War. They recall the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. They understand what it means to fight for freedom, and they remember a war in which the issues were black and white, a battle between good and evil. They are also part of a generation that expected less and gave more. They grew up before Watergate, Vietnam, and the assassination of a president.

We are a different generation. We find ourselves mired in the complexities of a different type of war and we’re confronted by a very different enemy. We live in fear rather than confidence. We are more capable of telling you the faults with our leaders rather than their attributes, and the problems with our nations rather than its strengths. We also sing God Bless America but I’m not sure we sing it with as much fervor and passion as they do.

The residents at the Grandell are a community of immigrants and the children of immigrants. For them, America has always been the ‘Goldineh Medina,’ even if they don’t speak Yiddish. America is a land of unlimited opportunity and potential. One could become almost anything in this country – even the president. Of course there are also African Americans at the Grandell who no doubt have a different perception of what America offers. Yet even they would speak of the vast changes in civil rights that they’ve witnessed over the course of their life time.

We, on the other hand, complain a little too much and too often. We bemoan the fact that the opportunities which are presented to us are not as good as they used to be. We fail to see that how much we have in this great nation when compared with the vast majority of the world. We’re not even sure we are comfortable having God “bless” America. Whose God do we mean and whose prayer should we recite? We seem to spend more time worrying about rather than contributing to our nation.

This weekend as we celebrate Independence Day, we need to step back and offer a prayer for our nation. We need to set aside our differences and consider how privileged we are to live in a nation which offers us so much. We can complain about our government, criticize the president, make fun of the congress but in the end we are living in one of the few nations in the world where the democratic process actually works, and in which our voices matter. And it is all the more important for us to speak out in these trying times to make sure that those rights and freedoms are not taken away in the name of national security,

God bless America
God bless the people who make a difference