What I love most about the United States of America, both in theory and in practice, is its commitment to each individual’s unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s difficult to communicate to Americans who were born here just how unusual that last right is as a value, let alone a value held by the state. Most countries are committed to either abstract ideas like the “glory” or “majesty” or “destiny” of a people or government, or to something ruthlessly practical, like its own security or survival. But America is dedicated to the right of each inhabitant to try
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