Listened to this today.

When one is a child one is told all sorts of fairy tales. Boys are told about knights in shining armor and girls are told about princes who will come and sweep them off their feet. We're all told about living happily ever after.

As an American child, I was told about how lucky I was to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world. My head was filled with stories about how George Washington wouldn't cut down the cherry tree and Abe Lincoln wouldn't tell a lie. I was told stories of people who sacrificed absolutely everything so they could come to the United States, to America, the greatest country in the world, the Land of Opportunity so their children could have a good life.

I believe to a certain extent it's true that the United States is a fine country. For example, I can write this and post it publically on the internet where anyone with access to it can read it without fear of punishment (theoretically -- I've run into cases where that's not necessarily true anymore.) In what other country could I do that?

This country was based on some very fine ideals and has a good backbone if our leaders are willing to use said backbone to support the whole body.

I wish things could function and be run so that I don't look at American the Beautiful as a fairy tale.

It seems to me that to be a politician or any sort of authority figure one needs to be incredibly optimistic. Either that or they're blind.

Maybe I do know what to say.