Johnny and Billy

By: Gus Victoria

Johnny Reb, Billy Yank, why do you fight?

Brothers in blue and grey,

Was there no other way?

Was division so deep

Blood was your only bridge?

Fighting for a nation,

Your nation,

A country neither of you had seen,

A country given birth by your sacrifice,

No confederacy survived,

A Union was transformed,

Johnny, your body lies still at the altar of history,

Your yell echoes through time,

Billy, your courage has ever only had one equal,

That of your fallen brother.

Dixie was our second birthplace,

A baptism in fire,

Johnny and Billy did you know then?

What your struggle meant?

Generations pass,

And your memory is sacred,

Your sacrifice hallowed,

No Confederate,

No Rebel,

No Yankee,

Johnny and Billy,

Only Americans.

Indivisible, Indestructible

Mortar cannot hold this house together

As ideas seek to tear her asunder,

Words cannot assuage the anger

That we foment,

Ignorance is the darkness

And truth a luxury.

Yet she holds.

The winds of change batter her

And the sands of time erode

What we allow them to touch,

Yet she holds.

Rivers of tears flow

Threatening to flood

And make of her a memory,

Yet she holds.

This house cannot divided stand.

And this house divided shall not endure,

Our fathers and their brothers

Together, with blood paid,

Created a bond

That time cannot fade,

Words cannot degrade,

And we cannot repay.

Blue and grey

Perhaps never knew

What their struggle would do

To a country young as they.

Their sacrifice gave to us more than heroes

More than villains and battles,

More than songs,

They gave us this,

They gave us a home

They gave us brothers

They paid with life and blood

That ours be free,

For that is our destiny,

A destiny unachieved.

They gave us a home

From where our own fight can be waged

Indivisible and indestructible.