A More Perfect Union

From whence shall we expect the approach of danger?

Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow?

Never!

All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force

take a drink from the Ohio River

or set a track on the Blue Ridge

in the trial of a thousand years

If destruction be our lot,

we ourselves must be its author and finisher

As a nation of free men,

we will live forever,

or die by suicide.

(Abraham Lincoln, address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL, January, 1838)

There'll be no more counting the cars on the garden state parkway

Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where

And when I stand tonight, 'neath the lights of the Fenway

Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears?

Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me

Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry

No, I never wanted to change the world

but I'm looking for a new New Jersey

Because tramps like us,

baby, we were born to die

I'm doing 70 on 17,

I'm doing 80 over 84

And I never let the Meritt Parkway magnetize me no more

Give me a brutal Somerville summer,

Give me a cruel New England winter

Give me the great Pine Barrens

So I can see them turned into splinters

Cos if I come in on a donkey,

let me go out on a gurney

I want to realize too late I never should have left New Jersey

I sense the enemy

they're rustling around in the trees

I thought I had gotten away but they followed me to 02143

Woe, oh woe is me

no one knows the trouble I see

When they hang Jeff Davis from a sourapple tree

I'll sit beneath the leaves and weep

None of us shall be saved

every man will be a slave

For John Brown's body lies a'mouldring in the grave

So if it's time for choosing sides

and there's rumbling down in the caves

and to show this dirty city how we do the Jersey Slide

And if it deserves a better class of criminal

Then I'm'a give it to them tonight

So we'll rally around the flag

rally around the flag

Rally around the flag, boys, rally once again,

Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom

Rally around the flag

rally around the flag

Glory, glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on

I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.

On this subject,

I do not wish to speak, or think, or write with moderation.

I am in earnest.

I will not equivocate

I will not excuse

I will not retreat a single inch

and I will be heard