The United States of America is exceptional, and is recognized as the 'shining city on the hill.'
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"Recognised" by WHOM?????!!!!!!!!!
Stop taking "independence Day" for a documentary, ffs!!!
By whom?
Well, by some whose names you wouldn't be familiar with, but educated folks would...
1. Alexis de Tocqueville first wrote of America as ‘exceptional’ in 1835.
2. The French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy noted in a 2006 interview with the WSJ: “In France, with the nation based on roots, on the idea of the soil, of a common memory…the very existence of America is a mystery and a scandal…The ghost that has haunted Europe for two centuries is America’s coming together as an act of will, of creed. It shows that there is an alternative to organic nations.” [A society that took shape through conscious decisions and willful sculpting by its various founders and builders. –Medved]
3. “In most countries in the world your fate and your identity are handed to you; in America, you determine them for yourself. America is a country where you get to writh the script of your own life. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper, and you are the artist. This notion of being the architect of your own destiny is the incredibly powerful idea that is behind the worldwide appeal of America.” Dinesh D’Souza, born in India.
4. “The United States is comically bad at making its own case,” Maddox writes in the book’s opening pages. This observation will ring true to those Americans who wonder how their country—which welcomes more immigrants than any other, is more generous in its foreign aid than any other, and whose culture is so popular—could be loathed by so many. It will sound even more spot-on to those non-Americans, like Maddox, who consider themselves friends of the United States. For years, overseas admirers of the U.S. have had to endure witless editorials and boorish dinner companions ranting about how Uncle Sam is the root of all evil. Unfortunately, the government of the United States has failed miserably at defending itself in the court of world opinion.
Maddox makes the case for American indispensability. “American values are Western values,” she titles her third chapter. She stresses to her non-American readers that whatever differences they might have with America, they would do well to understand that the United States ultimately stands for individual rights, political freedom, and the free exchange of goods—all distinctly Western ideas.
CJ Mobile
5. In the speech that JFK had prepared for delivery on the day that he was assassinated:
“We in this country, in this generation, are--by destiny rather than choice--the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of "peace on earth, good will toward men." That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Selected Speeches of John F. Kennedy - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
