Bob's Place

"There is nothing like being away from America for a couple of weeks to make you love it more than ever. This is one helluva great country. Other countries may have great wine, or great art, or great buildings, or great fjords, or great squares—but America is a great country. It has a great spirit, a vitality, an optimism—based on its freedom of opportunity and its promise to let each of us pursue our respective dreams—that no other country in the world has with all its great wine or art. This perception is the most striking thing about coming back to America from abroad. Sweden, Finland, and Denmark—tiny countries—are countries that have no social problems: there is no poverty, no illiteracy, no medical indigence, and no crime. But there is also no passion, no struggle, no ambition, no vitality or excitement. In what other country can you find an Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Tiger Woods, a Bill Gates, an Oprah Winfrey, a Thomas Edison and an Irving Berlin?"