PLAYING MADAME BLAVATSKY

This one just came in over the transom:

Reason #6,177 why John Forbes Kerry will never be President of the United States.

If you know people who are wondering why the 2004 election matters, or about the difference between the two political parties, the following two statements about American exceptionalism might provide some food for thought:

*Senator John Kerry's Remarks to Georgia Democrats, March 1, 2001

We Democrats believe this nation is more than gleaming buildings and the gated communities with their swimming pools and finely-manicured lawns. We do not see America as a finished product; a city established upon the hill. We see an America still in the process of becoming; a dream not yet fulfilled; a promise not yet kept.

*President Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address, January 11, 1989

The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the `shining city upon a hill.' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free. I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2003 5:14 PM