“Much has been said over the years about the diversity of the American people and the vitality and resilience of the American character. Well, that character isn’t centered around any one religious denomination—for in our country there are many religions; everyone has a right to worship God as he or she chooses. It isn’t based on any one ethnic group or race—for our people come in all shades and shapes, and we remain dedicated to the proposition that all of them are created equal... But our national character is based on a common identity with a single ideal, a shared value that overcomes our differences and unites us as a people. What has made us a nation is our love of liberty and our realization that we’re part of a great historic venture, an experiment in freedom to test the ability of people to live together in freedom, respecting the rights of others and expecting that their rights, in turn, will be respected. I’ve said... that God must have placed this land here between the oceans to be found by a certain kind of people and a kind only in one thing: that whatever corner of the world they came from, they had the courage—and the desire for freedom that went with it...”

-- Ronald Reagan