I wish we would all remember that being American is not just about the freedom we have it is about those who gave it to us.

Freedom of religion is a principle that is central to our Nation's Declaration of Independence. Congress has taken this positive step to protect our freedom to express allegiance to America's flag and the ideals it represents.

What does it mean to be an American? While each of us may have our own specific answer to that question we likely can agree on the basic principles of America: freedom equal opportunity and rights accompanied by responsibilities.

The American idea is as promising imaginative and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.

I suppose there's a melancholy tone at the back of the American mind a sense of something lost. And it's the lost world of Thomas Jefferson. It is the lost sense of innocence that we could live with a very minimal state with a vast sense of space in which to work out freedom.

As a boy I believed freedom for America meant freedom for me. There was a time I believed every word spoken.

They know the importance of their mission and of America's commitment to combating and defeating terrorism abroad and they know that they are making a real difference in bringing freedom to a part of the world that has known only tyranny.

As our federal government has grown too large and too powerful the real loss has been the freedom of people to govern their own lives and participate fully in the American dream.

The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation the expansion of women's rights or now gay rights I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.

I think the American people have become more reliant upon government and less reliant upon themselves and that they now tend to put security ahead of freedom but I think freedom is the most important aspect of our lives.

Americans are free to choose everything from what they eat drive and watch on TV to the President of the United States. Yet when it comes to allowing Americans to choose the health insurance that works best for them and their family the freedom to choose suddenly becomes un-American.

More than anything else let me be clear - we need to be willing to fight for freedom and free markets and traditional moral values. That's what the American people want to see this movement and this party return to.

All Americans value the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press and I believe this is essential for our continued way of life. But with this freedom comes responsibility. That responsibility has been abdicated here by some in the media and some in the government.

To us Americans much has been given of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.

I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.

Now do I think there has to be shared sacrifice among other nations in the world who want a stable and secure world? Absolutely there has to be. But I don't think that America can ever abdicate its leadership role in the world because of who we are and where we've come from. We are the symbol for the world for freedom and liberty.

I think to be - for me to be an American is - you know it's one of the greatest things in the world for - you know for me just because I've been able to grow up with everything. The freedom. You know in my eyes this is the greatest country in the world.

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense... that gold and economic freedom are inseparable.

America's Veterans have served their country with the belief that democracy and freedom are ideals to be upheld around the world.

If our freedom is taken the American dream will wither and die.

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be our ideal of freedom and justice how we were going to be different and what the American experiment was going to be about.

Bush sees the evil as out there in the wider world residing in people who 'hate freedom'. Look at his immediate response to the pictures of prisoner abuse this is not what Americans do these are not our values.

While Democrats fussed with the details of health care reforms conservatives spent months telling the nation that the real issue is freedom that what's on the line is American liberty itself.

The American dream is about freedom.