“Voices of a nation, about that nation”

1. “Voices of a nation, about that nation” USA Today

2. Ozzie Guillen: “People are dying every day trying to get into this country, and people are dying overseas to defend what this country stands for: freedom and opportunity.” -- “Voices of a nation, about that nation”

3. James Yee: “I experienced firsthand the ugliness of America for defending liberty and justice when I had my freedom unjustly stripped away for 76 harrowing days in prison, isolated, threatened with the death penalty, and subjected to treatment similar to those declared as unlawful enemy combatants.” – “Voices of a nation…”

4. BogdanDzakovic: “Being an American means not just how many toys you can buy, but being involved in the government.” -- “Voices of a nation, about that nation”

5. “America” Walt Whitman

6. Centre of equal daughters, equal sonsAll, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or oldStrong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,… -- “America,” Walt Whitman

7. “America” Tony Hoagland

8. …even then he feelsBuried alive, captured and suffocated in the foldsOf the thick satin quilt of America -- “America,” Tony Hoagland

9. He gasped, “Thank God—those Ben Franklins wereClogging up my heart—And so I perish happily,Freed from that which kept me from my liberty” -- “America,” Tony Hoagland

10. I am asleep in America too… -- “America,” Tony Hoagland

11. “How Do You Feel About America?” Tom Robbins

12. Freedom has long proven too heady an elixir for America’s masses, weakened and confused as they are by conflicting commitments to puritanical morality and salacious greed. -- Tom Robbins: “How Do You Feel About America?”

13. “The American Idea,” Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 2007) Arianna Huffington: “Pursuit of Happiness”

14. All around the country, individuals are choosing to redefine the pursuit of happiness in ways much closer to the original American idea. More young people are volunteering than ever before, and more and more people, young and old, are including service to others in their busy lives.-- “Pursuit of Happiness,” Arianna Huffington

15. “The American Idea,” Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 2007) Eric Schlosser: “The Freak Show”

16. I have no tolerance for the anti-Americanism overseas or the complacency here at home. I worry about the extremes and the extremism that have deeply taken root—the anger, the arrogance, the lack of empathy and compassion.-- “The Freak Show,” Eric Schlosser

17. “The American Idea,” Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 2007) John Hope Franklin: “The Cover-Up”

18. The American idea is the nation’s holiday garb, its festive dress, its Sunday best. It covers up an everyday practice of betraying the claims of equality, justice, and democracy.-- “The Cover-Up,” John Hope Franklin

19. “A Song for Occupations” Walt Whitman

20. Is it you then that thought yourself less?Is it you that thought the President greater than you? or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you?-- “A Song for Occupations," Walt Whitman

21. Because you are greasy or pimpled—or that you was once drunk, or a thief, or diseased, or rheumatic, or a prostitute—or are so now—or from frivolity or impotence—or that you are no scholar, and never saw your name in print…do you give in that you are any less immortal?-- “A Song for Occupations," Walt Whitman

22. “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman

23. You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from meYou shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.-- “Song of Myself,” section 2, Walt Whitman

24. My signs are a rain-proof coat, good shoes, and a staff cut from the woods…Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,You must travel it for yourself.-- “Song of Myself,” section 46, Walt Whitman

25. “I Sing the Body Electric” Walt Whitman

26. There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations, (Do you think they are not there because they are not express’d in parlors and lecture-rooms?)How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?-- “I Sing the Body Electric,” Walt Whitman

27. Walden Henry David Thoreau

28. As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail… -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

29. We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn… -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

30. Our life is frittered away by detail…. Simplify, simplify…. We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

31. I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

32. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit….in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

33. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. -- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

34. “Civil Disobedience” Henry David Thoreau

35. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise…It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.-- “Civil Disobedience,” H. D. Thoreau

36. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -- “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau

37. …if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. -- “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau

38. The Awakening Kate Chopin

39. A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,--the light which, showing the way, forbids it. -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

40. But that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence. -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

41. She could only realize that she herself—her present self—was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect. -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

42. “Why, my dear, I should think you’d understand by this time that people don’t do such things; we’ve got to observe les convenancesif we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession.” -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

43. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world. -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

44. “…when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.’” -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

45. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

46. “ ‘The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.’” -- The Awakening, Kate Chopin

47. Poem #732 Emily Dickinson

48. She rose to His Requirement—droptThe Playthings of Her Life…If ought She missed in Her new Day,...It lay unmentioned—as the SeaDevelop Pearl, and Weed,But only to Himself—be knownThe Fathoms they abide— -- Poem #732, Emily Dickinson

49. “Cinderella” Anne Sexton

50. You always read about it:the plumber with the twelve childrenwho wins the Irish Sweepstakes.From toilets to riches.That story. -- “Cinderella,” Anne Sexton