I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy

One of my favorite all time films is, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

When James Cagney, as George M. Cohan, tap dances down the White House Steps, I’m always up from my chair, tappin along with him.

I make no apologizes for being such a patriot, regardless of the events our noble Country is enduring.

There’s a reason I cry when I see the Statue of Liberty.

I simply love my Country, for better or worse.

When I went to the Antietam Battlefield, the bloodiest single day of war in American History where 3,660 men died and 17,300 wounded, and thought I heard the sounds of battle, I knew what George Patton was talking about, who heard them too.

The ground so soaked with the blood of the brave, can’t help itself.

It remembers…

it reminds….

it humbles, history, our greatest teacher.

July 4th is a great day, so my heart filled with remembrance, will joyfully celebrate my country on her 244th birthday.

She still looks pretty good, even after all she’s been though.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented, George M. Cohan, the Congressional Medal of Honor for his war songs, Over There and The Grand Old flag, the very first medal of its kind, given to a person in the arts. (1878-1942)

Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming
The Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming
Everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over, we’re coming over
And we won’t come back till it’s over
Over there        George M. Cohan…1917

James Cagney (1899-1986) won the 1943 Best Actor Award for Yankee Doodle Dandy as George M. Cohan, and to think he initially refused the role, feeling he was too old to play such a man.

God Bless America!

  SB