“Wave that flag, wave it high and wide …” wrote Robert Hunter to Jerry Garcia’s composition now known as “U.S. Blues,” a love letter to our nation that speaks admiringly of symbolic Uncle Sam, but not without fully utilizing the beloved American right to be deeply critical of him.

Hunter was celebrated last week on what would have been his 80th birthday had he not passed away in 2019. Legend has it that his great-grandfather after whom he was named at birth was 18th-century Romantic poet Robert Burns, celebrated worldwide as the national poet of Scotland.

Perhaps poetic prowess is hereditary, as Hunter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead…