It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes … - Ronald Reagan

America is, and always will be, a shining city on a hill.

I was lucky. If I ever tired all I had to do was look over my shoulder. Age has its privileges and on this day of memory and reflection I hope you will indulge me in recalling some very special people. I remember a small woman with auburn hair and unquenchable optimism. Her name was Nellie Reagan and she believed with all her heart that there was no such thing as accidents in this life, everything was part of God's plan. If something went wrong you didn't wring your hands, you rolled up your sleeves. And I remember a story-telling salesman with the Irish gift of laughter and a certain American restlessness. In the spirit of this forebearers who had settled on the endless sea of grass that was the Illinois prairie before the turn of the century, Jack Reagan took his family to many new beginnings. Perhaps that was the route of my belief shared with Thomas Paine, that we Americans of all people were uniquely equipped to begin the world over.

It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, they make it come true for themselves, for their children, and for others. They give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. And often they are entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American. They renew our pride and gratitude in the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world -- the last, best hope of man on Earth.