It’s just a piece of cloth, that’s all it is.
Just a piece of cloth.
But when a little breeze comes along, it stirs and comes to life
And flutters and snaps in the wind, all red and white and blue…
Then you realize that no other piece of cloth could be like it.
It has your whole life wrapped up in it…
The meals you eat, the time you spend with your family,
The kind of things boys and girls learn at school,
The strange and wonderful thoughts you get in church.
Those stars on it…
They make you feel just as free as the stars in the wide, wide, deep night.
And the stripes…
They are the bars of blood
To any dictator who would try to change this way of life.
Just a piece of cloth, that’s all it is
Until you put your soul into it and give it meaning;
Then it is the symbol of liberty and decency and fair dealing for everyone.
It is just a piece of cloth
Until we breathe life into it,
Until we make it stand for everything we believe in
And refuse to live without it.
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