A Nation Like No Other by Newt Gingrich

you feel happy. Freedom is a big concept. For me, America is a place with no barriers. This is a great country with big opportunities. I love America!

JULIA GILLARD
PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA, ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS, MARCH 10, 2011 3
    For my parents’ generation, the defining image of America was the landing at Normandy. Your “boys of Point-du-Hoc” . . . risking everything to help free the world. For my own generation, the defining image
of America was the landing on the moon. My classmates and I were sent home from school to watch the great moment on television. I’ll always remember thinking that day: Americans can do anything. Americans helped free the world of my parents’ generation. Americans inspired the world of my own youth. I stand here and I see the same brave and free people today. I believe you can do anything still. There is a reason the world always looks to America. Your great dream—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—inspires us all.
    . . . You have a friend in Australia. And you have an ally. And we know what that means. In both our countries, true friends stick together. . . . [I]n both our countries, real mates talk straight. So as a friend I urge you only this: be worthy to your own best traditions. Be bold. In 1942, John Curtin—my predecessor, my country’s great wartime leader—looked to America. I still do. This year you have marked the centenary of President Reagan’s birth. He remains a great symbol of American optimism. The only greater symbol of American optimism is America itself. The eyes of the world are still upon you. Your city on a hill cannot be hidden. Your brave and free people have made you the masters of recovery and reinvention. As I stand in this cradle of democracy I see a nation that has changed the world and known remarkable days. I firmly believe you are the same people who amazed me when I was a small girl by landing on the moon. On that great day I believed Americans could do anything. I believe that still. You can do anything today.

IGOR FINKLER
RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT, ON CBS REALITY SHOW UNDERCOVER BOSS , FEBRUARY 21, 2010
    I am living an American Dream now. America is the best country in the world. You guys just do not really know how blessed you are, because you take it for granted. I came to the U.S. with little English, no knowledge of any culture, $50 in my pocket—and I survived. That’s a story about America. That’s not a story about me. I am blessed, I am really blessed. And now you ask me why I am so motivated? Because I am so thankful for this country which allowed me to survive and be happy.

FAROOZ
IRANIAN IMMIGRANT, “CITIZENSHIP: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS,” REASON.TV, JUNE 30, 2010 4
    If you have an idea, you have the freedom to do it or pursue it. Whether you achieve it or not, that’s another question. I am Farooz . . . from Iran. I drive a taxi cab. . . . My passion from childhood was art. So I got my BA and Masters in fine arts. I am a painter.... New ideas and new trends in everything—whether it is in politics, or art, or movies, whatever—starts here in the United States and spreads across the world. This is because of the freedom that exists in this country, in every respect. And each person in their own field are free to do whatever they like.

SUDANESE IMMIGRANT
“CITIZENSHIP: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS,” REASON.TV, JUNE 30, 2010 5
    I was born Christian. And this is my religion. I am not going to give it up because my government doesn’t want me to be Christian.... I think this is the country where people can speak up. Everyone has rights. And nobody would deny your rights.

TONY BLAIR
FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, TIME MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 6
    Americans can be all that the rest of the world sometimes accuses them of: brash, loud, insular, obsessive and heavy-handed. But America is great for a reason. It is