God Bless America
A Different Kind of Love Story
by Joe Puggelli
Introduction
I wrote God Bless America in 1980, when America was in a mess much like today’s mess, and not long after the Ray of Hope generated by the American hockey team’s improbable run to the Olympic gold medal. I had been trying for years to write something that put into perspective my experiences in the war, the war itself, and the condition of our country.
I was especially interested in trying to put into words for a non-veteran reader a description of the Something that happens in war, a Something that can, unless one is careful, transform the heart into a stone; a Something which, even if one is careful, you must deal with and take control of if you are ever to fully return home.
I hoped that in the process of so doing I would find the language that would help me understand what had happened to me.
In multiple attempts over multiple years I had failed miserably to write what I was trying to write. Then one day, after seeing a commercial for Contac cold capsules, which were small capsules full of little tiny time pills, I got the idea for the opening line and for the piece’s metaphor; and then the piece flowed out.
- Joe Puggelli