I love my country, by which I mean I am indebted joyfully to all the people throughout

its history who have fought the government to make right.

Where so many cunning sons and daughters, our four mothers and four fathers, came singing

through slaughter, came through hell and high water, so that we could stand here and behold

breathlessly the sight.

While a raging river of tears cut a grand canyon of light, I need a franko wrote that.

I'm at the grand canyon, it's colder than I thought it would be.

In my head it was the desert I guess, but I'm at the north side of it.

It's high up in the mountains.

There are trees, evergreen furs and spruces, lots of trees.

It are cold and thin air.

It hurts a little to breathe and every time I do the breath comes out visible.

It's off season I think, or maybe not many people come to this part of the canyon.

A great acreage of sheer nothing, a vast quantity of air.

If we are a country made up more of distance than culture, then no wonder this is our most

defining sight.

We come to see the beating heart at the center of America and it is a hole in the earth.

And then we take a picture of it so that we can own a little bit of that distance.

Because that's all we want, really.

I know I've gone silent since Seattle and I'm sorry.

It's just now that I know they're listening, which I should have known, I always should

have known that.

...