America Is Exceptional: But Because It Yields

Our Commitment Should Be To Leave Our Environment In Better Shape Than When We Found It, Our Nation's Fiscal House In Better Order, Our Public Infrastructure In Better Repair, And Our People Better Educated And Healthier. To Indulge In Immediate Gratification And Exploitation Is An Insult To Previous Generations, Who Sacrificed For Us, And Thievery From The Next Generation, Who Depend On Our Virtue.

If Half-black Barack Obama Had Decided Years Ago To Call Himself White - Which His Genes Certainly Entitled Him To Do - His Story Would Have Carried Very Different Meaning. If Millions Of Part-black People Had Followed Him Into Whiteness, Then The N.a.a.c.p. Would Be In True Crisis.

Identity In America Is Complicated But It's Also Simple: It's About Whom You Identify With And Who Identifies With You.

True Patriots Measure Themselves Not By Personal Wealth Or Power But By The Degree To Which They Contribute To The Community.

We All Want Merit To Mean Something, And We All May Be Tempted To Reduce That Meaning To Something Measurable And Concrete Like An Sat Score. The Reality, Though, Is That Who Deserves Entry Into An Institution Depends On What The Institution Exists To Do.