Today I learned that "America the Beautiful" was written by Katharine Lee Bates who was a feminist and a lesbian. The original third versus is as follows:
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
'Til selfish gain no longer stain,
The banner of the free.
I can smell the sad political irony from here.
I first learned this here then proceed to read more about Bates, who lived with her partner for 25 years, wrote numerous children's books, was the first to popularize Mrs. Claus, and seems generally awesome.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment