For 50 years I worked in emergency medicine - running toward the worst moments of other people's lives.
I come from a military family that has served this country for generations, and that idea of service has been the thread through everything I've done.
This year, for America's 250th birthday, I wrote a song called "American Made." It's a Heartland Rock anthem, and I wrote it to be a unifying one - about all of the country, not one side of it.
The lyric is the oldest American idea there is: "Out of Many, We Become One. All our Color and Shade. Those who Stand when Freedom isn't free."
I recorded it alone in a home studio in Georgia's Golden Isles.
It's now in heavy rotation on Breaking Sound Radio and has been played on radio here and overseas.
Tony Michaelides - the veteran publicist for David Bowie, U2, Peter Gabriel and the Police — has played it on his shows and called it a track that "hits home on the first play."
But the song isn't really the point.
I spent a lifetime caring for everyone who came through the ER door - regardless of where they came from, what they believed or who they voted for.
That's the America I was trying to write about: the one held together by people who show up for each other when it costs something.
The ones who stand when freedom isn't free.

Listen: https://open.spotify.com/track/0AvaUrRgVe4yq0WouJcyOI