WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN
I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon.
I seek opportunity...not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done.
All this is what it means to be an American.
Massachusetts Citizens for Freedom
THE RULES OF BEING HUMAN
You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period.
You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life.
Each day in this school you will learn lessons.
You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error:
Experimentation.
The *failed* experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that actually works.
A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it.
Once learned, you then go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons.
If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
*There* is no better than *here.*
When your *there* has become a *here,* you will simply obtain another *there* that will again look better than *here.*
Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need.
What you do with them is up to you.
The choice is yours.
The answers to Life's questions lie inside you.
All you need to do is look, listen and trust.
Cherie Carter-Scott
I BELIEVE
I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, businesses or personal affairs.
I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.
I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character - not wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth.
I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.
I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by what ever name, and the individual's highest fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.
I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
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