I play three patriotic songs on the keyboard

A Word With Marty: "NATION"

"Stars and Stripes Forever:" A short-short story from my book, Soloists

A Moment of Patriotism

I'm hardly an American patriot. Indeed, I don't believe in patriotism: We should take pride in that which we have created, not an accident of where we're born or moved to. Too, I feel as much solidarity with a person from Ouagadougou as I do with someone from Oakland, where I live.

Yet in preparing for my KGO radio show tomorrow (July 4,) in which I'll start each segment playing a piece of patriotic music on my portable piano, I came across this version of God Bless the USA by an American Idol contestant and I was somehow moved to tears. Irrational but real.

So as we approach Independence Day, perhaps you too will find it moving.