If a jerk burns the flag America is not threatened democracy is not under siege freedom is not at risk.

When I went off to the army when I was 17 years old I believed in America and the rights of freedom. But today I believe my government is lying to the American people and that my president George Bush is a criminal.

My father described this tall lady who stands in the middle of the New York harbor holding high a torch to welcome people seeking freedom in America. I instantly fell in love.

America has never seen itself as a national state like all others but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.

Latinos have fought in all of America's wars beginning with the Revolutionary War. Many Latinos are fighting and dying for our country today in Iraq just as several of their ancestors fought for freedom in Mexico over a century ago.

I have always been a firm believer in the longstanding American principle of having the right to bear arms and I will remain committed to see that this freedom is not infringed upon revoked or limited in any way.

It could be my British need for discipline that makes me admire the American appetite for freedom and passion.

American movies and music deliver themes of freedom innocence and power that appeal to others - partly because America itself was put together out of a multiplicity of national traditions.

They were singing in French but the melody was freedom and any American could understand that.

All my life Americans have been accustomed to thinking of theirs as 'the richest freest' country in the world. By most measurements it was long a contender for that honor and - among the larger countries if equal weight were given to wealth and indices of freedom - probably did deserve to be so described.