What is it that makes America the nation that so many want to live in unlike nations such as Russia, China, or Turkey? What is it that it offers that attracts so many people to its shores?
I suggest it is one word: opportunity. The opportunity to be whatever you want to be and to be protected in that right. The opportunity to have something for yourselves or your children that you would not otherwise have. The opportunity as Boston Municipal Court Judge Elijah Adlow put it: “to have peace, quiet and the right to enjoy life.”
Thomas Gray spoke about those who lived and died in the English countryside. He wrote:
“Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid – Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; – Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway’d, – Or wak’d to ecstasy the living lyre.
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page – Rich with the spoils of time did ne’er unroll; – Chill Penury repress’d their noble rage, – And froze the genial current of the soul.”