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Nebraska has room for two songs
Southwest Nebraska native Ginger ten Bensel has written a wonderful tune about her home state.
"I Love Nebraska" mentions wildlife, birds, wheat and corn, our glorious sunsets, horses, railroads and, of course, Cornhusker football.
It's a country tune, naturally, since Ginger is a country musician who spent time in Nashville before taking her current gig with a Hastings television station.
Native Nebraskans and those who call the flat-water state home may get teary-eyed when they hear the chorus:
Oh, Nebraska, what a beautiful place to be,
where you can wake up Sunday morning, and hear a church bell ring,
you can watch an eagle spread its wings and soar into the sky,
I love Nebraska, and there's a million reasons why.
The song deserves to be played and sung, particularly this week, the 140th anniversary of Nebraska becoming the 37th state.
But there's another great song about Nebraska that's been our state song since the state centennial in 1967:
Beautiful Nebraska, peaceful prairieland,
laced with many rivers, and the hills of sand,
dark green valleys, cradled in the earth,
rain and sunshine bring abundant birth
It was written by Jim Fras, a Russian refugee who died four years ago, and who used to play it for his fellow residents in the Fairmont nursing home where his widow still lives.
Beautiful Nebraska, as you look around,
you fill find a rainbow reaching to the ground,
all these wonders by the Master's hand,
Beautiful Nebraksaland
"He put his heart and soul into that song," said June Rozanek, a nurse who took care of Fras in his final years. "He'd be heartbroken." As for his widow, Irene, "she's devastated" that a bill, LB345, proposes a change.
It would be hard for many of us, who grew up hearing Dr. Robert Manley perform the current state song, on educational television broadcasts, to imagine any other song.
Let's keep "Beautiful Nebraska" in its current status.
But there's no reason "I Love Nebraska" can't help generate state pride in the same way songs like, say, "God Bless America," "My Country 'Tis of Thee" or even Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" do for our nation.
Decide for yourself. To hear each of the songs: