Nit-picky meanie liberals are at it again

Don't they know their leader, uber-nerd Al Gore, kinda sorta didn't lose the election? Now they're picking on the poor ol' Shrub for not knowing exactly how some stupid phrase really goes. I mean, c'mon, it's not like it's commonly used. The most famous example of the phrase is buried in some stupid speech that only nerds who stayed after school doing extra credit for the super special A++ grade would know.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I mean, who would know that? And even Dr. King, who apparently wrote this speech, was taking the nerdy phrase from some song that no one's ever heard of.

My country,' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

I mean, I can see that this song might be the sort of thing you might want to drag out and get out there again, since it will have alot of appeal to those Jesus people that know all about how the Constitution came from the Bible and all that. But still, even I know these kinds of messages might not go over so well with campaign contributors. I mean, rocks and trees and stuff? That sounds kind of squishy enviromentalist to me, tree-hugging, anti-American stuff. You certainly wouldn't want the Iraqis knowing about our tree-huggers, they might get ideas and stuff that it's not so cool tearing up their entire country to get at some oil so that our over-sized cars can pollute the air some more.
Really, I'm glad that the Prez couldn't remember the exact phrase. First, you have freedom ringing instead of reigning and next thing you know you have to pay attention in class and people think you're an asshole for driving an Expedition (seats 9) back and forth 50 miles to work round-trip by yourself everyday. "Reign" looks fancier than "ring" anyhow.