I am an American. That means that no one can tell me what to think, what to believe, what to worship or what I can or cannot say. I am an American. That means that I do not need to fear that anyone can invade my privacy, listen to my conversations or tell me with whom I may speak or spend my time. I am an American and that means that nobody can invade my home, sieze my property, or arrest me unless they have first convinced a judge that I have probably committed a crime. I am an American and that means I can travel where I wish and when I wish to and no one can ask me for "my papers" at a check point unless I am entering the United States. I am an American and that means that no one can throw me into jail without charging me with a crime or keep me there without giving me the opportunity to make a reasonable bail nor deprive me of my property or liberty unless a jury has convicted me of a crime. I am an American.

I am an American and I am proud of it. I believe in that America I learned about too many decades ago; an America in which each person had the same rights and privileges that I do; dedicated to those principles of human freedom that set our system of government apart from those that compel their people to conform to a prescribed orthodoxy. It is an America in which government serves the people; owes loyalty to the people; and in which the people are sovereign over the affairs of government.

In America each citizen has the right; no, each citizen has the duty to question the decisions of the President and Congress; to evaluate government’s performance and to demand an account of government's actions. In America no one is entitled to be respected and obeyed merely because of the position he holds or the prominence he has achieved. I am an American.

What has happened to America? No enemy can destroy America for no enemy can invade our minds and steal from us our cherished heritage and ideals for it is those ideals and that heritage of liberty and freedom that is America. We can only destroy America ourselves. We can do it with silence; by being afraid to question and by being willing that some of our liberty is taken away that we may be safe. We can do it by accepting that some people are entitled to less freedom because their ancestors came from a different place or engaged in a different form of worship or worshiped a God with a different name. We can do it by permitting some to be imprisoned without charges, to be held without bail not because of what they have done, but because of what we fear that someone might do. We can destroy America by permitting it to wither away.