I grew up listening to their greatest hits while my mother was driving me to school, or taking me around my South Bay home in Southern California.
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Only recently did I learn about their latest (hopefully not their last) hit "Calling America."
This ballad relates the frustration of a lover reaching out to his beloved in the New World, and it cannot be missed.
We the People of the United States need to hear this song. Today, the teeming masses of this fallen world are still "Calling America".
America is more than a country, more than the New World, but the idea, the Dream made Real of redemption and renewal, of the disconnected and unimportant becoming powerful and wonderful. America is the final destination of all mankind, where God is the final authority, where the truth sets us free, determined not by the might of men, but the right of eternity, where rights are given by Eternal Providence, not temporal favors.
Somebody told her that there was a place like heaven
Across the water on a 747
Yeah, we're living in
In a modern world
We live a in modern world, filled with inventions and innovations, because of America. While European countries sought collective safety and conformity based on tradition and pedigree, and while Ancient China discouraged trade and invention, the United States of America welcome, prospered, and rewarded inventors, artists, creators of all sorts.
Before the founding, individuals felt the pressure to conform. They had to believe whatever the King deemed holy, or face charges of heresy and death. Liberty is one of the holiest of virtues, and for many people, America is as close to heaven on earth as one can find.
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To this day, for millions oppressed and harassed, The United States of America is as close to heaven as one can get to on earth.
And pretty soon she's really got the notion
Of flying out across the big blue ocean
Yeah, we're living in
In a modern world
In America, you can have an idea, and take off with it. You can go anywhere, the sky is the limit. The men who discovered this country were not intimidated by the large bodies of water between continents, but overcame them. A modern world is about seeing the truth, rejecting the traditions, and growing towards the limit, only to surpass it for something better.
Talk is cheap on satellite
But all I get is static information
I'm still here re-dial on automatic
In America, the Communication Revolution took off, and never looked back. Without Facebook, there would have been no Arab Spring. Without Twitter, isolated Americans would not have shouted together to #MakeDCListen. A free press for free people is a modern reality, dormant for centuries under tyrannical servitude. Talk is cheap today, but powerful, and even the static can shake up the status quo.
Chorus
Calling America (can't get a message through)
Calling America (that's what she said to do)
Calling America (that's where she has to be)
Calling America (she left a number for me)
Calling America
Perseverance is essential to success, and in America success is prevalent in the midst of challenges, available to those willing to get it. Not just about working hard, but not giving up when you fail, determines the difference between winners and losers. In the United States of America, you can fail and try again, and fail again, but still consider yourself a gainer, and ultimately reach success. As American inventor Thomas Edison outlined: "Success is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
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But I'm just talking to a satellite
Twenty thousand miles up in the sky each night
Yeah, we're living in
In a modern world
While many may think that there is too much talk, in America, we need to believe the truth: that we are reaching out to someone. No matter where you are, you will find someone who is listening, and who is willing to learn.
All I had to do was pick up the phone
I'm out in space, trying to talk to someone
Yeah, we're living in
In a modern world
She left a number I could call
But no one's there, no one at all
There must be something going wrong
That number just rings on and on
The latter part of this song hints of a lingering silence among Americans, frustrated with poor leadership, a bullying federal government which does not listen. Yet no matter how distant and unresponsive the state may seem, no matter how alone we may feel, let us never stop calling, we never stop loving our country.
Said she'd call when she'd been gone a while
Guess she's missing me across the miles
Yeah, we're living in
In a modern world
Does America the Beautiful seem like a distant memory, a hope deferred which will never return? In the last verses of the song, the singer knows that his beloved will call back. Instead of "Calling America" referring to those who call, the song is now describing the New World, which calls us. We are living in a modern world, one which would never have been without America.
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While momentarily elusive, the American Dream remains a reality, but we know that the Dream of America will not die, will not go away. While the times are tough, and America's greatness looks waning not waxing, failing and not gaining, we can still see that the world is "Calling America". Today, America is calling once again, to be seen, to be loved, to be revered and recognized greater than before!
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