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Show WE ARE AMERICA By RUTH TAYLOR What are the United States? Not a mere collection of sovereign states, each rules of its own destiny. des-tiny. Not a federation drawn together to-gether for convenience in defense, de-fense, or for economic reasons. As Eric Johnston, president of the United Sbates chamber of commerce, com-merce, wrote: "It is an error to describe the United States as a sovereign union of sovereign states. It is the people who are sovereign. The people of each state give to their state government govern-ment what powers they please. They retain the rest. The people of all the states together give to the national government such powers as they please and retain the rest. The United States of America are the, American people neither neith-er rich nor poor; neither employer or employee, neither Black . nor White, neither Protestant, Catholic Cath-olic nor Jew but Americans all united under a common banner which calls for equal opportunity and equal justice for all. I It is this democratic cohesion that is our greatest strength and greatest protection. Working together to-gether as one people, without regard re-gard to class, creed or color, we have coordinated different elements, ele-ments, people of different faiths and different backgrounds into one common whole not sacrificing sacri-ficing the good in their pasts, but welding them together with a common vision of a world of freedom. It is this cohesiveness, this ability to assimilate the good and discard the bad that has made the United States the richest rich-est and most envied nation on earth- Our land, fertile though it is, lias in itself no merit except what we give it. It is the toil of people peo-ple that has made it fruitful. Even its vast mineral resources are of. no use until they are torn from the earth and devel- oped by man. A country is no greater than its people. It IS its people. The United States is the American Amer-ican people. We are a nation of individuals, entitled by our form of government to individual rights and with individual responsibilities. responsibili-ties. What the future of the United States will be, is what you and I, and all our fellow citizens working together, do. We , CAN follow the course already mapped out for us by the signers of our Constitution, working out by peaceful means the way to a better world and a more equable distribution of the bounties of a free country. We CAN make of the United States the Utopia of which men have dreamed throughout through-out the ages a land of peace and prosperity, of justice and brotherhood for all. WE can do this because WE are the United States.. We are America- |