Today is July the 4th, our national holiday, and we’re told our problems are hopelessly insurmountable, our divisions entrenched. But here's the truth: we were founded on the ideas that we’re all equal, and we all get a shot, and we all have to put up with each other and live-and-let-live. It’s the most beautiful way to envision a country that anyone has ever come up with. “God mend thy every flaw,” this song says—inviting us, as the great Willie Nelson does at his 4th of July picnic every year, to remember, once again, the better angels of our nature.

Willie Nelson, “America the Beautiful,” 2001. Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates, 1893, music by Samuel Augustus Ward, 1882.

This post is part of Music 100, a love letter to songs. 100 words on 100 songs in 100 days, running from Groundhog Day to 4th of July, 2025.

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