Hello and welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. The Eric Erickson show. The full number is

8779773-725 if you want to be on the program, although you're going to have to be patient.

We have reached the hour where I have things to say. But before even I say those things,

can we pause?

It is Independence Day weekend for our great nation.

Oh, say, can you see by the non-turnerly life?

What so proudly we hail that the twilight's last evening

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

Through the perilous fight

Or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rocket's red flag

It proved through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star's

Spangled banner yet wave

For the land of the

land of the free and the home of the brave.

There it is, our national anthem.

Used to be a radio show host a long time ago.

I forget, was it Ken Himmeline, who always started his show with a variation of the Star-Spangled Banner?

I've thought about that, but it would be hard to keep up and then their rights issues and all of that.

That one is the U.S. Armed Forces Glee Club. You know, I did not grow up in this country.

When I was five years old, my family moved to the United Arab Emirates. My dad worked for an oil company, and it was basically moved to

Dubai or find a new job. It was not the Dubai you know today. Our yard was desert. My parents

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