Thank You God

How come after thousands of years of experiment
Our new nation has come so far, so fast?
All this in less than two hundred years
What is the secret of our success?
Well, I think it had to do with a basic American's Creed
Perhaps it never passed a pioneer's lips in this form
But if it had I think he would have said something like this
I believe in my God, in my Country and in Myself
I believe in my God, in my Country and in Myself
I know that sounds like a trite too simple thing to say
And yet it's a rare man today who will dare to stand up and say
I believe in my God and my Country and in Mysеlf
And in that order
When the еarly American pioneer first turned his eyes toward the west
There were only Indian trails or traces as they were called
For him to foll'er through the wilderness
Do you know today you can
Roller skate from Miami to Seattle, from San Diego to Plymouth Rock?
In this little bitty instant, as historical time is measured,
Our 7% of the Earth's population has come to possess
More than half of all the world's good things
How come?
Well sir, when that early pioneer turned his eyes toward the west he
Didn't demand that somebody else look after him
He didn't demand a free education
He didn't demand a guaranteed rocking chair at eventide
He didn't demand that somebody else take care of him
If he got ill or got old
There was an old fashioned philosophy in those days that
A man was supposed to provide for his own and for his own future
He didn't demand a maximum amount of
Money for a minimum amount of work
Nor did he expect pay for no work at all
Come to think of it he didn't demand anything
That hard-handed pioneer just looked out there
At the rolling plains stretching away to the tall green mountains
And then lifted his eyes to the blue skies and said
"Thank you God. Now I can take it from here"
"Thank you God. Now I can take it from here"
That spirit isn't dead in our country, it's dormant
It's been discredited in some circles, driven underground
But it isn't dead
It's just that a few seasons ago politicians baiting their hooks
With free barbeque and trading a Ponzi promise
For votes began telling us
We don't want opportunity anymore, we want security
We don't want opportunity anymore, we want security
We don't want opportunity anymore, we want security

And they said it so often we came to believe them
We wanted security
And they gave us chains and we were secure
Suddenly with our constitutional guarantees depleted
With our national character eroding away
With our tax laws penalizing those who would dare to prosper
With workers concentrating on how little they can get by with
Instead of how much they can produce
Suddenly we looked overhead one day to discover
That the first to the moon in space was a Russian accomplishment
That free men dragging their feet had been outdistanced
By slave workers dragging their chains
And we were sore afraid
Perhaps this was a disguised blessing, too
Maybe a dramatic accomplishment by this cold war adversary
Was necessary to get us off our dead centres
And back to work again
If we can revive in ourselves,
Then in our youth, something of that
Basic American's Creed,
The horizon has never ever been so limitless
For Man stands now on the threshold of
His highest adventure of all his first faltering footsteps into space
Twenty years from today, half of the products
You will be using in your everyday living
Aren't even in the dictionary yet
We've got it made If we just keep on keeping on
We've got it made – and if we don't?
We will follow those other great nation-states of history
Into the graveyard of ignominious oblivion
History promises only this for certain
We Will Get Exactly What We Deserve

Thank you God
Now I can take it from here
Thank you God
Now I can take it from here
Thank you God
Now I can take it from here
Thank you God
Now I can take it from here