Twelve Reasons to Love the U.S.A., I

“1.  The United States was the first nation in history created out of the belief that people should govern themselves.  As James Madison said, this country’s birth was ‘a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.’  The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written national constitution in operation.  It has been a model for country after country as democracy has spread across the continents.” — William J. Bennett, The American Patriot’s Almanac, p.33.

A Tale Of Two Freedoms

“European freedom is essentially passive, protective.  American freedom is much closer to liberty.  Europeans accept limits achievement in the interests of personal security and the general welfare.  Americans believe instinctively that the general welfare is best served by fostering personal achievement.  Europe imposes limits on the individual for the common good.  We believe that the common good is best served by individual opportunity.  We look at European lives and see their limits.  Europeans regard our freedom to succeed as little more than the freedom to fail.  Despite the chronic gloom of our domestic intelligentsia, we are the world’s optimists.  Europeans are pessimists.  And even if their pessimism occasionally proves well-founded, it’s still the optimists who change the world.” — Ralph Peters, New Glory, p. 136.