"I know I've said this before, but I believe that God put this land between the two great oceans to be found by special people from every corner of the world who had that extra love for freedom that prompted them to leave their homeland and come to this land to make it a brilliant light beam of freedom to the world.
It's our gift to have visions, and I want to share that of a young boy who wrote to me shortly after I took office. In his letter he said, `I love America because you can join Cub Scouts if you want to. You have a right to worship as you please. If you have the ability, you can try to be anything you want to be. And I also like America because we have about 200 flavors of ice cream.'
Well, truth through the eyes of a child: freedom of association, freedom of worship, freedom of hope and opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness -- in this case, choosing among 200 flavors of ice cream -- that's America, everyone with his or her vision of the American promise.
That's why we're a magnet for the world: for those who dodged bullets and gave their lives coming over the Berlin Wall and others, only a few of whom avoided death, coming in tiny boats on turbulent oceans. This land, its people, the dreams that unfold here and the freedom to bring it all together -- well, those are what make America soar, up where you can see hope billowing in those freedom winds.
When our children turn the pages of our lives, I hope they'll see that we had a vision to pass forward a nation as nearly perfect as we could, where there's decency, tolerance, generosity, honesty, courage, common sense, fairness, and piety."Ronald Reagan
Remarks at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana 8/15/88
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