“As the Storm Clouds Gather” –“God Bless America” Gratitude for this Free Nation and Those Who Made it Free on Independence Day

Part I

“Storm Clouds” and “God Bless America” As this picture shows, on our  approaching July 4^th Independence Day, 2025, there are storm clouds gathering, but one brave eagle is trying to rescue the American flag.  Is that eagle a symbol of the many brave Americans who are still standing for their country and wanting to preserve its liberties?

The picture makes one think of the opening refrain to the beautiful song written by Irving Berlin, “God Bless America” which starts with the words: “As the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us pledge allegiance to a land that’s free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”  The refrain is followed by just one verse that has been sung by just about every American across the nation from the time they were small school children: “God Bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night, with the light from above.  From the mountains, to the prairies, to the ocean, white with foam.  God bless America, my home sweet home, God bless America, my home sweet home.”

Who Was Irving Berlin? Berlin knew himself what it meant to come to a “land that’s free” because he came from a land that was not. According to the Kennedy Center.org, Berlin’s real name was Israel Bailine, with a nickname of Issy, and he was born in 1888 in Tyumen, a Jewish village in Russian Siberia. When he was age five, anti-Jewish sentiment and persecution was rising, and a mob set fire to his family’s home.  One of his first childhood memories was lying on a blanket outside watching his home being burned to the ground.  His parents, Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin and children (what turned out to be six girls and two boys) took what few belonging and money they had and traveled to Antwerp, Belgium, where the family boarded a ship for America.  It was called the SS Rhynland. They arrived in New York on Ellis Island in 1893 and settled on New York’s Lower East Side, where many Jewish people were settling.

As Issy delivered the newspapers to bars and saloons, he began hearing the popular songs of the day that were sung inside and began singing them himself as he delivered his papers. People loved his voice and would give him extra coins for his singing. Issy’s father had been a cantor in the Jewish synagogue, and he had inherited his father’s great voice.  Issy eventually got a job as a singing waiter in a restaurant. He would stay after work and practice playing the restaurant’s piano, which he taught himself to play.  He copied the musical style of the day and began writing his own lyrics and tunes, which became immediately popular.  A printing error on a published piece of sheet music left him with the name of Irving Berlin, and that became his name on all his music from then on.  In 1911, he wrote his first huge dance hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” that helped make him famous across the nation.

Berlin’s 1^st and 2^nd Wives and Family:  At age 24, in February 1912, after a brief whirlwind courtship, he married 20-year-old Dorothy Goetz of Buffalo, New York.  She was the sister of one of Berlin’s collaborators, E. Ray Goetz. But during their honeymoon in Havana, she contracted typhoid fever.  Doctors were unable to treat her illness when she returned to New York. She died just six month later on July 17. Berlin was grief stricken and unable to write for months after.  Finally, he composed his first ballad, “When I Lost You” which expressed his deep grief. 

He did not marry again until 1925 when he was 37.  He married Ellin Mackay, the daughter of a wealthy financier Clarence Mackay and Katherine Duer Mackay, a socialite and writer. Ellin was also a writer for several magazines and newspapers. She was age 22.  Berlin was 15 years older than she.  Since Berlin was Jewish and Ellin was Catholic, her father Clarence was very opposed to the wedding.  Thus, Berlin and Ellin eloped and were married in a simple civil ceremony at the Municipal Building, away from media attention.  Clarence did not speak to his daughter for three years after the wedding.  They were finally reconciled when Clarence came to comfort his daughter with the death of the couple’s second child Irving Berlin Jr. who died on Christmas day, less than a month after he was born.  The Berlins had three daughters who all lived to adulthood:  Mary Ellen Barrett, Elizabeth Peters and Linda Emmet.  Irving and Elin were married 63 years until her death in 1988 at the age of 85. Irving lived one more year, dying in 1989, at 101 years old. 

Berlin’s Works and Honors: Over his 60-year career, Irving Berlin wrote music and lyrics for 19 Broadway shows, 18 motion pictures, hundreds of non-theatrical songs, totaling an estimated 1,500 song. He also composed the scores for 20 Broadway musicals and 15 Hollywood movie musicals.  He received numerous honors including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald R. Ford in 1977. Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite stated he “helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives”.

The song “God Bless America” – Berlin had written the lyrics to the song  in 1918 when he was a sergeant in the army stationed at Camp Upton in Yaphank, on Long Island, New York.  He had been asked to write a musical review to help raise money for a new army building.  He ended up not using this song and had just tucked it away.  Twenty years later, in 1938, the famous soprano Kate Smith needed a patriotic song with which to end her radio show, to mark the 20^th anniversary of the ending of World War I. She asked Berlin if he had something she could use.  He remembered this old song, resurrected it, changed it a little, added music to it and presented it to her.  She sang it at the end of her show.  It was an immediate success.  Berlin’s phone started ringing off the hook as soon as the show was over.  Everyone wanted copies of it.  Kate Smith started using it as a closing for all of her radio shows for 5 years.  After a few weeks, she added the beginning refrain that Berlin had written for it.     

The God Bless America Foundation:  Irving Berlin was a member-at-large in the Greater New York Boy Scout Council and regularly visited the council’s camps. He received Scouting America’s highest honor for adults, the Silver Buffalo Award in 1948.  Berlin and his wife both strongly believed in the principle of scouting for both boys and girls.  Kate Smith joined them in setting up a foundation in 1940 so that all the royalties from the hit song God Bless America would go to the Boys Scouts and the Girls Scouts (now called Scouting America) through the God Bless America Foundation. That arrangement is to last until 2034 when the copyright runs out.  According to a CNN news report of 2011, over ten million dollars back then had been given to both organizations from the foundation.

What Berlin Said About the Song “God Bless America:” Berlin viewed the song as a personal expression of gratitude for the opportunities and home the United States provided for him and his family. His daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, highlighted this, saying it was a “thank you” from “the immigrant boy who made good.”  In a 1940 interview, Berlin described “God Bless America” as more than just a patriotic anthem. He considered it “an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means.”    (word count 1417)

 Part II

Conflicts and Skirmishes Leading up to the Declaration of Independence – Similarities to Today   

If our founding fathers and those who signed the Declaration of Independence were to come back to our nation today, I am afraid they would see some of the same unrest, protests, violence and division as they saw back in 1776 and the years leading up to it   Here are some examples:

Protests: Yes, there are protests today in the streets as there were in 1776 and the years prior.  A few years ago, starting in May of 2020, following the death of George Floyd by white police officers, there were horrible Black Lives Matter protests against the police going on in every major city across the nation with terrible destruction of property, businesses being looted and many burned. More recently, in just the past few months, we have seen protests in the streets of Los Angeles and spreading to other major cities, protests against ICE, the government agency gathering up illegal alien criminals and deporting them

Boston Tea Party:  Back in the years and days leading up to the Declaration of Independence, there were also protests against the government – the British government.  The most famous one became known as the Boston Tea Party.The Colonists were so tired of havingtaxes and tariffs levied on everything they were supposed to purchase, even something so small as their stamps, that when a tax was placed on their tea, that was the last straw.  A group of Boston colonists on December 16, 1773, disguised themselves as American Indians and stormed the British ship that was bringing the tea and had a huge “tea party,” dumping 432 chests of tea into the Boston harbor as a protest to having to pay any more taxes.  They were tired of “taxation without representation,” meaning they had no say in what was being forced on them.  They wanted to be a free nation, with representative government, not a monarchy, with a king telling them what to do and what not to do.

Great Division: Our nation is divided just as it was back in 1776 and the years of the Revolutionary War.  Torries and Loyalists:  Back in 1776, not everyone of the colonists agreed that they wanted to win their independence from Britian.  According to US History.org, about 20 percent were Torries or loyalists and supported the king and the monarchy.  They were afraid that the colonists would be too weak to win against the British in any kind of a war, and they wanted to be on the winning side.   Maybe another 20 percent were fence-sitters, undecided.  They would support whoever won but not be involved themselves.  There were only 3 percent of Americans who actually fought in the Revolutionary War.

Our nation has great division between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, so much so that it is hard to carry on a civil conversation.  Not everyone is happy with the Trump administration.  They cannot acknowledge any good that he is doing.  They are calling him a dictator or a king, and there have been protest rallies called “No King Rallies.” You would think people would be happy to see all the waste, fraud and abuse of funds that Trump and Elon Musk were attempting to do by the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) program that Trump started.   But no, they do not like that some of their favorite socialist programs are being cut, so they have taken it out on Musk’s Tesla cars, trying to damage and destroy them and even attack Tesla car dealerships. 

There are many US flags that have been burned, and foreign flags are being flown in their place. Amazing that these people are protesting not wanting to be sent back to their own countries, yet they are so proud to wave the flags of their home countries. Does that make any sense?  

Violence with Guns and Fires: Today, there are guns being fired and killings of civilians and  law enforcement officers and fires being set.  The same thing was happening in 1774-1776.  Here are some of the beginning skirmishes and battles:

Attack on the British Fort William and Mary:  According to Battlefields.org, on December 14 and 15, 1774, a colonial militia of 300 men from Portsmouth, New Hampshire attacked the British Fort William and Mary that only had ten soldiers guarding it.  But those soldiers would not surrender the fort.  Fighting ensued and one British soldier was wounded.  Finally, the garrison surrendered, and gunpowder, firearms and 16 cannons were captured by the colonial militia.    

Battle of Lexington and Concord, MA that took place the morning of April 19, 1775, exactly 250 years ago and a few months. That is where a group of 80 courageous American colonists were ready to take a stand against the 400 British soldiers, who were under the command of Major General Francis Smith.  The British had marched on these cities to take possession of supplies of weapons and cannons. In Lexington is where the famous “shot heard round the world” happened.  No one knows if it was a British soldier or an American colonist who first fired, but it is what officially started the Revolutionary war, though war had not yet even been declared.  Eight Americans were killed and one British soldier. 

Battle in Concord: The militia retreated, and the British moved onto Concord, breaking into different companies to search for more weapons and cannons. Most of the weapons the colonists had were hidden or buried.  The few that the British could find they confiscated and set fire to anything too large to move like canons.   At the North Bridge in Concord, a company of just 100 British regulars found themselves facing a force of 400 Colonial militiamen.  At the end of that battle, the British were left with 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 26 missing, while Colonial forces had 49 killed, 41 wounded, and 5 missing.  The outnumbered British fell back from the bridge and rejoined the main body of British forces, and they retreated back to Boston, a 36-mile trek. 

Battle of Menotomy, just outside of what is now Arlington, MA:  The British were joined by more soldiers from the command of General Hugh Percy, so in total they had 1,700 men.  But the militia had also been gathering more troops.  By this time, the afternoon of April 19, there were 4,000 American militia, from 35 different companies.  The British found themselves surrounded. This was no longer just a small encounter, but a regular battle. There were 40 British killed; 80 were wounded; the Americans lost 25 men, 9 were wounded. The British retreated back to Boston.  The militia were continually firing on them as they marched home.  The accumulated militias that had assembled blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown and Boston

Siege of Boston, an eleven-month period from April 19, 1775 to March 17, 1776 when American militiamen effectively contained British troops within Boston.  The leader of the Americans was a newly-appointed commander named George Washington.  All of these battles led to a firmer determination on the part of the Founding Fathers to write a Declaration of Independence and separate ourselves from Great Britian.  (word count 1,200)

Part III

The Writing and Signing of the Declaration of Independence & What Happened to the 56 Men who Signed it

The Writing and Signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 2 – 4^th:  A committee of five men was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence – declaring our freedom from Great Britian.  They were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livington.  The man that finalized everything and wrote the actual document was Thomas Jefferson. 

It was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress, who convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial capital of Philadelphia. These delegates became known as the nation’s Founding Fathers. The Declaration explains why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule, and it has become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in history.  It is the closest thing to a Declaration of War Against Great Britain.

Great Britain didn’t officially declare a state of war on us either.  Their parliament did declare that we were in a state of rebellion in August 1775.  That was the same month that all 56 Founding Fathers wrote their names on the official parchment paper of the Declaration of Independence.  It was shortly thereafter that the first battle started, the Battle of Long Island, in August  27.   

The brave men who were willing to sign the Declaration – 56 in total – knew full well that by so doing they were declaring themselves as enemies of the state of Great Britain, a treasonous act, with the penalty of death by hanging.

At the end of the Declaration just before signing their names, they wrote: “For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” 

The Sacrifice Made by the Signers: Many of the 56 signers did lose their lives, many lost their fortunes, but none of them ever lost their sacred honor.  Here us a summary of what happened to them according to the Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution:  5 signers were captured and tortured before they were hung by the British; 12 had their homes ransacked and burned; 2 lost their sons in the Revolutionary War; another had 2 sons captured; 9 fought and died themselves from wounds or hardships from the war.   

Here are some specific examples:  Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty.  Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly, trying to keep them in hiding.  His possessions were taken, and poverty was his reward.  Vandals or British soldiers or both, looted the properties of William Ellery, George Clymer, Lyman Hall, George Walton, Button Gwinnett, Thomas Heyward, Edward Ruttledge, and Arthur Middleton. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The British jailed his wife, who died a few months later. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, Hart lived in hiding in forests and a cave. When he finally returned home, his wife was dead, and his children scattered. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of many of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, the great document that laid the foundation for our Constitution and the reason why we celebrate the 4^th of July – called Independence Day.

These were not mean, rabble-rousing ruffians, who wanted to disturb the peace. No, they were men of means and education.  Many had wealth and security, but they valued liberty more. Many did lose part of what they pledged, their lives and fortunes, but they never lost their sacred honor.  That lived after them.  That is why we honor them today as our heroes and call them our Founding Fathers.

Let us remember their example and that of the lone eagle in the picture at the beginning of part 1 who is valiantly holding up the flag as the storm is brewing.  Sometimes, we may even have to stand alone as we try to hold up our flag for our nation and take a stand for moral values and truths, but it certainly helps to be surrounded by like-minded fellow eagles.  There is strength in numbers.  May this be a Happy 4^th of July as we reflect on and show gratitude for all the good, the just, the courageous, brave men and women who have gone before us and made this nation possible.  May we do our part to hold up our flag and reflect in how we live our lives the courage, purity, honor and virtue that the colors of red, white and blue stand for.