[GratefulCitizen]

What is "America"?

America is not a set of laws.
America is not a collection of governmental structures.

America is not a collection of people who recognize and assimilate to a particular cultural heritage.
If any of these things happen, it is a consequence, not a cause.

America is an idea.
The future is in promoting and protecting that idea.

Promoting and protecting is complex and involves many aspects.
First and foremost: winning hearts and minds.

So what is the "idea"?

America is this:
Your rights, and implicit responsibility of respecting others' rights, are inherent in your being.
They can neither be granted to you nor taken from you by the opinion of another.

There is the reality that power and influence are not equally distributed among mankind.
Life, liberty, and property can and will be unjustly granted or taken according to the power of some.

This injustice is just a fact.
"Unjust" droughts and floods also happen.

The first step in this battle for "America" is to free men's minds.
Teach them the difference between the limited liberty of external circumstances and the unlimited freedom of how they process that fact within their own minds.

The idea that our rights are inherent in our being implies an ideal world where all men will respect those rights in others.
The "ideal" will never be reached in this fallen world, and every one of us will die eventually.

Teach men that, during their limited time, whatever big or small part they play in pursuing that ideal is a life well spent.
Once the fire is burning within their hearts and minds, they will seek the like-minded, and practical work can then be done.

Keep the focus on the idea.