John Wayne An American Hero

FOLKS: All my life I've felt privileged to have had good friends around me, privileged to have been able to do the kind of work I know and love the best, and to have been born in a country whose immense beauty and grandeur are matched only by the greatness of her people.

For a number of years I have tried to express a deep and profound love for these things; to be able to say what I feel in my heart. And, now, in this album, I've had the chance to do so. I know most of you feel the same as I do about our country.

Now and then we gripe about some of her imperfections, but sometimes that's good. Especially if it gets us working together to make things better.

It seems to me we often take too much for granted, and have a tendency to forget The Good Things About America.

My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for. May we nurture her strengths, and strengthen her weaknesses so she will be, that she will always be,

Land Of The Free, and Home Of The Brave.

Sincerely,

John Wayne

You ask me why I love her?

You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain...

Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain ?

Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?

Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?

Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines?

Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines?

Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?

Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore...

Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock?

And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock ?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies... way up high?

Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?

Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...

Or bow your head at Gettysburg... in our struggle to be free?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons? ...Have you watched an eagle soar?

Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?

Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winters day,

Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?

Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm? Do you stare in disbelief When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?

From Alaska's gold to the Everglades... from the Rio Grande to Maine...

My heart cries out... my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.

You ask me why I love her?... I've a million reasons why.

My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.

And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea."

This note was pinned by John Wayne many years ago and it reminds me of exactly why

I Love America and nobody can take that away from me!

Michael Mack
An American