American Magnetism – Sunday, July 01, 1984
Think back on it—back to the time when the only sound here in the American Rockies was the whine of wind through the lordly pines, back to when the waters of the Mississippi saw only teepee and open camps, and the rooftops of Manhattan and Chicago were lower than her trees.
Then, even then, in distant lands the word was whispered and rehearsed; the word, synonymous with hope; equivalent to liberty; more than a place—a shrine, a sanctuary for the dreams of man; across the campfires and in the shops of Europe, behind closed doors and prison gates, with prayers and hymns, in varied tongues and accents, again and again the word was expressed: AMERICA, AMERICA.
By the thousands they came: the pioneers, the adventurers, the rejected. They carried with them their dreams, their hopes, their scant but priceless possessions—plows and seeds, lathes and anvils, sewing needles and looms—and more than that, much more: traditions and creeds, hymnals and prayer books, sacred writings in a hundred varied tongues.
Think of it, the magnetism of a name, a single word: AMERICA.
And the past is not alone. Observe these present years among the rice paddies and primeval forests of Southeast Asia, in boats and in dinghies, swamping in the waves of hostile seas, pressing toward this distant land of hope. Look to the south, through fences and along the waterways—ever dreaming, always hoping—the word persists: AMERICA.
This country, drawing still, the discontented and disfranchised of humanity, and in each heart and on each lip rehearsed—the American Catechism of law and proverb: “We, the people,” “Liberty and justice for all,” “In God we trust,” “Help wanted,” “Innocent until proven guilty,” “A man’s home is his castle,”—and a hundred other phrases which represent a real and daily freedom.
Not perfect, not complete, ever changing and repairing—yet something still sustains the image, a basic substance, perhaps the essence of what is good in all men, distilled here from among nations in this cauldron of humanity.
And thus, be it ever, the haven of man, and the home of the free.
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July 01, 1984
Broadcast Number 2,863