What Does America Mean to Me? - by Paula Cohen

Image by cleopatra69 via Flickr[I posed the question, "What Does America Mean to You?" on LinkedIn and several people took their precious time to answer it for me. It's always an honor when people engage in conversation with you. Some mentioned the crumbling infrastructure of the USA, the Wall Street greed, the relationship with Canada, Mexico and South America. But then I read Paula's answer and knew that I wanted to share it with you... - Patty]

Still, after all these years...the Stars and Stripes snapping against a blue sky in a fresh autumn breeze. The sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains marching, wave on wave, into the distance, and the words "For purple mountain majesties..." running over and over through my head.

The Gettysburg battlefield in early July, where -- if you just listen closely enough -- you can almost, just barely, hear the sounds of the battle all around you, and feel the goosebumps rising on your arms. The road from Boston to Lexington and Concord, still there, with the stone walls on either side...the same road on which the British marched back to Boston, after the first shots of the Revolution; the same stone walls from behind which the Minutemen fired at
them...all still there.

The first sight of El Capitan and Half-Dome, as you enter Yosemite National Park from the southwest, which renders you speechless with wonder, and half incapable of believing that such beauty can exist, even as you're looking at it. The little islands off the Maine coast, just peeking through the fog at daybreak, reminding you of what the world must have looked like when it was
young.

"The shining city upon a hill," in John Winthrop's words. A country founded to give its people opportunities that no people had ever known before. A country made and governed by men -- human, and flawed -- a country that has made some terrible mistakes; a country that has, nevertheless, tried -- and very often succeeded -- in learning from and correcting those mistakes...in picking itself up and moving on to greater and ever greater strengths.

A generous, big-hearted people. A land of big cities and small towns, of hard workers, who like their independence and relying upon themselves. The country of the Lady Liberty, lifting her lamp beside the golden door. The place where people -- including my grandparents, on both sides -- have always come, and continue to come, for the chance of a better life.

In Abraham Lincoln's words..."the last best hope of earth."