I would like to hear nominations for an anthem for the Peace Movement... and for The World March.
I want to nominate the following:
"This Is My Song"
Music written in 1899-1900 by Jean Sibelius
Lyrics written in 1934 by Lloyd Stone. The 3rd verse was added by Georgia Harkness
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes and dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
May truth and freedom come to every nation;
May peace abound where strife has raged so long;
That each may seek to love and build together,
A world united, righting every wrong;
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.
This is a beautiful song which reaches across boundaries and petty patriotism to speak of the love that everyone should feel for their own land... and therefore of the whole World. If we had grown up singing this instead of the belligerent and jingoistic national anthems that we're all used to, perhaps this World would be a better place.