A 22-year-old Honduran man squeezed through the pillars in Tijuana on Wednesday carrying his child while Customs and Border Patrol was not on watch. They disappeared into the distance and did not appear to be captured, but this was not confirmed. (Thomas E. Franklin / For the Times)
God Bless America
Irving Berlin’s “Love Song to America”*
Once a new American
he was given asylum,
a five year old with his parents
and siblings in 1893,
his great tribute to America
written in 1918, and we sang
his song again and again for us all,
a song for America born out of
of the hopes of all who came,
composed in simple words and melody
that all of us, young and old,
born a citizen or a new American could sing.
Yet, today, would Irving Berlin
still bless America if he could see
its border at Tijuana, Mexico,
Today, would he ask God to bless America,
stand beside her from sea to shining sea?
today would he sing of the land he loved,
see it still as a home sweet home for all,
for desperate families like his who traveled
months and miles to reach a safe home,
instead to find today, police with riot shields,
and tear gas, metal barriers on roads
and sidewalks and a border closed.
Today, would he sing, as he once did,
remembering his own entry to America,
would he still see America now as the land we love?
Irving Berlin’s “Love Song to America”*
Once a new American
he was given asylum,
a five year old with his parents
and siblings in 1893,
his great tribute to America
written in 1918, and we sang
his song again and again for us all,
a song for America born out of
of the hopes of all who came,
composed in simple words and melody
that all of us, young and old,
born a citizen or a new American could sing.
Yet, today, would Irving Berlin
still bless America if he could see
its border at Tijuana, Mexico,
Today, would he ask God to bless America,
stand beside her from sea to shining sea?
today would he sing of the land he loved,
see it still as a home sweet home for all,
for desperate families like his who traveled
months and miles to reach a safe home,
instead to find today, police with riot shields,
and tear gas, metal barriers on roads
and sidewalks and a border closed.
Today, would he sing, as he once did,
remembering his own entry to America,
would he still see America now as the land we love?