"So many things seem so completely divided right now that it can be overwhelming. And over time it’s also misleading. If you pay too much attention to what’s happening you can easily conclude that America is a rotten country. But that’s wrong! It’s not. America is still the best there is."
"Two things about America make it great. The country and its people. This is a truly beautiful place, that’s the first thing. If you’re absorbed in your phone all day it’s easy to forget that, but look around, it’s stunning! Switzerland has the Alps, Zimbabwe has Victoria Falls, but multiply that by an entire continent and you’ve got what we’ve got… America. From the islands of Puget Sound to the islands in Casco Bay, to the Rockies, the Badlands, the Upper Peninsula and the Appalachian Mountains in-between. Spend a day hiking through the Shoshone National Forrest in Wyoming, you might not see another person. How could a place so gorgeous be so empty? We’ve got a lot of those here. Wake up in Big Sur California some morning. The smell of red woods and salt air will change you. You will feel things you inherited from your ancestors, coming from places the modern world cannot touch. We are blessed to live in a place like this, more blessed than we acknowledge. No matter what the future holds, nothing can diminish the dignity of an Eastern White Pine towering above the spruce in a New England forrest. And all of it is ours to enjoy. Thank God."
"We’ve got a lot for people to enjoy it with, an awful lot. Americans are still the best people, misguided as we sometimes are. This isn’t an especially religious country anymore, but surveys on church going do not tell the whole story. Even now, most Americans know they are not really in charge of the universe. They know there is something bigger out there, bigger than all of us combined. And when you understand that, when you know in your bones how small you are, how short the ride is likely to be, you tend to treat people better. Americans do. Don’t let cable news fool you, this is a profoundly nice country. The nicest in the world. Americans are nice to children, to pets and to strangers. We give more money to charity than any other place. We tip our waiters more. There is no other country on earth that you would want to be lost in, someone will help you find your way. In America we don’t eat dogs, we rescue them. They sleep on the bed, we give them funny names, and we cry when they die. It’s a sweet country."
"In some ways America is getting better. The music is improving and so is the food. Believe it or not we still make things here and lots of them are pretty good. That probably won’t change. Americans love innovation but they are distrustful of anyones radical plans for the future. Most people prefer incremental improvement, that’s why we’ve only had one revolution. It’s why we’ve fought off the metric system all of these years and thank heaven we have."
That brings me to the Fourth of July. The Fourth of July in America is great, even for those who choose not to celebrate what it's about. It’s still one of the best times of the year, in my opinion. Therefore, it’s one of the most American. America is a happy country, despite everything. Our happiness is fundamental, it’s in our founding documents, it’s in our people. And nothing can take that away.
