I seek to call America home to those principles that gave us birth.

Yes Americans can still get credit for cars and trucks and refrigerators and those businesses are doing well. But just try to get a home loan now.

It's also much clearer how much damage the occupation of Iraq is doing to America's reputation and prestige around the world and that's just starting now to hit home in the United States.

Here at home when Americans were standing in long lines to give blood after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon we squandered an obvious opportunity to make service a noble cause again and rekindle an American spirit of community.

I am not suggesting that all those missionary organizations working in Haiti should pack up and go home but I am urging them to understand that Haiti does not need clever Americans with newly contrived schemes for saving their country.

I came here in 1974 to do a play and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.

Because of my parents' love of democracy we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

The penalty for getting mugged in an American city and losing your ID is that you can't fly home.

I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America.

There are more than 300 000 families in the Gulf region that lost their homes and are waiting for peace of mind. The hurricane exposed the sad reality of poverty in America. We saw in all its horrific detail the vulnerabilities of living in inadequate housing and the heartbreak of losing one's home.