陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

独立日一语
On American Independence Day - Some Thoughts

价值一语： Words of Value:

The true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which constitute the true greatness of the individual. --- Charles Sumner

一个国度的伟大是体现在组成这个国度的个体的伟大品质上的。 --- Charles Sumner

We want the spirit of America to be effecient; we want American character to be efficient; we want American character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual effeciency -- clear, distinterested thinking and fearless action along the right lines of thought. --- Thomas Woodrow Wilson

我们所要的是一个高效的美国精神；我们要的是一个高效的美国人的品质；如果可以的话，我把它叫做美国人品质中的高精神效应 -- 那就是一个清晰的，毫无杂念的思维，再加上道德理念指导下的勇敢无畏的行动。 --- Thomas Woodrow Wilson

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 10/1/2011)

It is almost the 230th anniversary of American Independence. Being a naturalized American citizen, I want to celebrate this great anniversary with all the freedom-loving people in the world.

I often say that it is NOT the nation that gives meaning to its citizens; it is rather the individual citizens give meaning to their nation. America is great because the people that constitute this nation are great individuals.

When I visited New York in 2001, right before 9/11, on our anniversary with my wife, we toured the Rockefeller Center. On a stone plate in front of the building, there displayed some words etched into eternity by John Rockefeller himself:

"I believe in the supremacy of the individual."

What a great motto! Only a self-made man can utter such words with confidence and moral clarity. The "Supremacy of the Individual" is indeed the American Spirit. This is not a society of groups, or of the classes, or of the powerful government... This is a nation of great individuals who have come to America to build their own individual dreams. This is a country of brave individuals who left their own often oppressive homelands in which they were born, and came to a new world to build a better tomorrow. This is a congregation of independent individuals with great mentality for self-government who have created the greatest nation, the freest society on earth...

To be an American means to be oneself, to be an individual with God-given rights and creativities, to be an integrated entity being responsible for one's own state of affairs. Thus America is a progressive society, a learning, living, thriving society. And in America, only sky is the limit.

On this anniversary of American Independence, I, with all my heart, wish America the best, for America is me, is myself, is all freedom-loving people in the world. I wish all the world would become American.