Making America Our Own Again

A Possible Speech For Kerry

...Our America is free. We don't try to shut people up because we disagree with them, and we don't accuse them of being unpatriotic because they have a different opinion. We don't worry about people reading the wrong books. We don't set up our own internal secret jails. We do things out in the open in our America. We don't hole ourselves up in secret meetings with our cronies. Our America is open. Our America is free.

Our America is just. We don't grudgingly let people into the tent and make a big deal of it. We go outside, we meet them where they live, and we take them for who they are. And you know who they are? They're our neighbors. You know, our America hasn't always been good about this. But it is fundamental to our nation that we have learned. Immigrants from everywhere, people of color, women, gays and lesbians...The mistakes we made in the past don't define us. The way we have moved into the future of equality and justice and respect and dignity...that's what defines our America.

Our America is full of life. Not fear and doubt. We're a confident country. Confident enough that we know not everyone has to be like us, and not everyone is going to like us. That's ok. That's more than ok. That's life on this planet. We love it. We love to laugh. And we love to try things out. Come up with new ideas. Tinker. Invent. Innovate. Some of the ideas are just plain wrong. Doesn't matter. We'll invent some more. We're Americans. That's what we do in our America...