From "Dark Sanctuary" by Ronnie Ray Jenkins

Prologue:

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forests to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

Copyright 1944
Woody Guthrie
 
It could be any house in America. It could be a house painted white with black shutters bought on sale at Sears, and proudly installed by the owner. It could be a house in a neighborhood where kids play Frisbee and football on the street, or where they run through piles of golden leaves in the chill of a setting October sun. It could be a neighborhood where mothers still yell from porches to children that it’s bath time and are not shy about it either, because they all do it.

The house could have a big front porch with a wooden swing on it and an American flag attached to the post beside the cement steps leading up to it. The owners might have a dog, or cat, or a canary. They could have an eleven-year old freckled-faced boy who has a fascination for catching bugs and snakes or anything that crawls and scares the girls. It could be a house seen on any side street-- in any town-- in a place called America. It could be your house.