What does my country mean to me?
DIVERSITY: Where in the world can you meet a person of every color, of every country, of every political perspective? Where can you go to meet people who speak myriad different languages, freely celebrate any religion, embrace one another's culture? Where can you learn so much about others and yet still remain connected with yourself? Where can you take differing views, from self-centric to family-centric to society-centric, and meet in public to peacibly discuss these views and mutually grow among people with whom you so strongly disagree? Where can you express your approval or disapproval of your government, your job, your boss, your circle of friends, your family, your place of worship?
You can do these things in my country.
GENEROSITY: What nation's taxpayers have created the largest wealth of humanitarian aid for every needy country on earth? Whose population has forgiven the most loans and dropped all its charges when the going got rough for another people? Whose brave soldiers and builders and engineers have always, INVARIABLY, stayed in the aftermath of war, of natural disaster, of epidemic, to help pick up and sort out the pieces?
Ours.
BEAUTY: In what country lies every climatic type, from forests to wetlands to plains to fertile farmland? Where can you see majestic, snow-covered mountains, vast uninhabited desert, and a bustling cultural centre in the same day? Where can you visit a rain forest, an amusement park, a shopping mall, a monument to cultural heroism, and even frozen tundra? Where can you fall asleep outdoors on a summer evening with nothing covering you and not worry about rain or cold?
In my country.
RESILIENCE: Which country has fought off persecution, oppression, wars, civil rights crises, imbalances of power among minorities, and even attacks on its own soil? Where can you go to meet a country that has, in less than half a millennium, grown to economic super-power status, all from the stand point of "send us your poor, your weak, your sick?"
My country.
PERSEVERENCE: Where do you consistently meet people of all shapes and sizes who have an unending work ethic? Where can you witness patriotism gluing together people who have historically hated each other most in the world? Where else does an act of terror so rekindle the spirit of survival in a nation?
Nowhere else.
OPPORTUNITY: Where can you go to take a shot at becoming filthy rich? Where can a poor African tribesman send his children to become refined, educated, successful adults? Where do so many people converge from all the nations of the globe in seek of a better life?
Here.
FREEDOM: In no other nation will you find a place where you can be EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE and still be so loved and appreciated by all the people around you, despite any and every difference between people that you can possibly imagine.
There is no place that I would rather be.
To work, to visit, to liesure, to live; my country is the place I will always call "home."
