Everyone Would Stand for the National Anthem, if This was the Song

[The Wielding Truth]

16. I'd choose this one, too.

We would have to add another verse to include Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico and the US territories.

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/01/21/this-land-is-your-land-the-for/

If all you know of This Land is Your Land are versions made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio or the song you sang in the third grade in school, you won’t know any of them. They were considered too dangerous and subversive. One of the three was slightly altered for the Mall concert, in a very significant way. The last of them is an expression of hope and determination:

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

It’s preceded by two other verses, one of which is still incendiary. Actually hearing it on TV was a mind boggling experience for many of us:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
The sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

Stunning. But more interesting is what Pete and company did to this seldom heard verse:

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the Relief Office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

For the Mall concert, the despairing query of the last line changed to one of optimism and affirmation:

As they stood hungry, I stood there whistling,
This land was made for you and me.

I raise my glass to you, Pete. You got to sing it at last. And I’m so very, very glad.