The American - A Global Citizen Defining Change Artists design sculptures of John McCain and Barack Obama (image courtesy: Madame Tussauds) “You see for me, America is an idea. It is a stage for transformation. I felt when I came to Iowa City from Calcutta that suddenly I could be a new person... What America offers me is romanticism and hope... Suddenly, I found myself in a country where theoretically, anyway merit counts, where I could choose to discard that part of my history that I want, and invent a whole new history for myself. It’s that capacity to dream and then try to pull it off, if you can.”
- Bharati Mukeriee,
novelist interview with Bill Moyers, 1990
Europeans and Asians come from more than a thousand years of common language, culture, and combined heritage... they are who they are. Americans are different, because we develop continuously with the world around us through change - not who we are, but who we can become... by designing and creating ourselves, as Americans - citizens of the world.
America’s 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, noted, “The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”
Our founders consisted of philosophers, risk takers, entrepreneurs and businessmen who risked their lives and fortunes to revolutionize this nation. The Bill of Rights fosters independent thought and action and establishes our freedom of speech, press, and religion, our right to keep and bear arms, our freedom of assembly, our right to petition and due process, and our right to a speedy trial by jury. Immigrants flock to America for this freedom, to start businesses, to express themselves, to become US Citizens; for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
America was founded on the principles of historical and great philosophers with the idea that the role of the government was to serve the people and establish an infrastructure to support enterprise, growth, and development, by incorporating original ideas drawn from around the world over time. In appreciation for these economic opportunities, those who succeeded would ‘Give Back’ to the community and be recognized by their friends and family, but also remembered in history.
The American Dream and miracle of the U.S. belongs to ‘us’ and the United States itself is a continuously-evolving machine of human capital – birthright citizens, naturalized citizens, and immigrants who will one day become citizens; with their hybrid footprints of international genes combined with the same hopes and aspirations of our ancestors – who brought their ideas to this country, their energy, their passion, and the consummate desire to succeed – against the odds. Our nation thrives because of this energy, persistence, perseverance, determination and conviction.
As we travel the world with our passports, we expose ourselves to different values, we experience other cultures, and incorporate the best harvests of other countries into our own. We experience lessons-learned in life, success through failure, trial and error, we study, we graduate, we evolve, we better ourselves, and we help others do the same. We can adapt, overcome, and we teach our children family values, making history for future generations - from us, to tomorrow’s leaders. Scientists created the internet as a research communications necessity, it opened up an extraordinary communications link for us to share news, innovation, business practices, and political philosophies around the world, and international audiences tend to think that we have something here worth emulating. We export our goods and services, styles, and our philosophy of hard work, ethics, investment in infrastructure, contribute to the community through corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, public service, and giving-back to those less fortunate.
The continuing theme for BEST OF DC is the ‘Defining Change’ of leadership in America. This Inaugural Edition honors and pays tribute to those whose participation has generously helped publish this unique book. We pay noteworthy tribute to these remarkable individuals and organizations, their vision and foresight sets a new standard of excellence for others to follow.
They were the first, by recognizing the value of this project, and contributing to a collective work that each select participant can exclusively call their own. We proudly welcome you to join us and encourage you to support our efforts, as we celebrate these illustrated success-stories of visionary leadership... as “history is written not for us, but by us.”
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