For starters it is most of the land mass on one hemisphere of the planet. The United States is one country out of 35 countries in North and South America. We are not the only Americans

What is the US?

We are not just our government, we are not just our symbols, and we are not just our laws.

The United States is not just a place, it is an idea. It isn’t a thing you can hold on to in your hands. You have to have it in you; in your actions, thoughts, and words.

People came together and said it is not right that men (humans) should be subject to the whim and fancy of a few or a single person. We should come together for the common good of all people.

All People!

Those who lead, are chosen to protect all of us not just those with whom they agree. It is not an easy job to lead, it is troubling and hard. However that is not the US either.

The US is still this idea we strive to achieve. A dream we hold, to be better than we were before, not for glory or fame but for liberty, freedom, justice, and happiness.

Too many people in power, and those who put those people there, seem to have forgotten these ideals of liberty, freedom, justice, and happiness and only strive for power, fame, and glory.

Too many people in power, and those how put them there, feel that it is right to divide the people and say some people do not have the same rights to liberty, freedom, justice and happiness as others.

We, the people, All People!

We keep our hopes and dreams alive not by debate and political discourse. Our dreams are born from deeper stuff. When we are inspired by those of us who see the world as it could be and arguably how it should be.

Our hearts are not stirred by a new piece of law but by song, and art, and poems.

Our minds are not broadened by lectures alone, but also by paintings, and stories, and understanding of other cultures.

Our flaws and short comings are made into lessons through comedy and satire, so we learn and grow from them.

We are not free or liberated if we are unable to celebrate who we are as people.

Celebration means our art, our songs, our films, our paintings, and our poems, our dreams made of stuff so others might see how the world could be and really how it probably should be.

When you think about the United States, you do not think of laws, or Presidents, or other things. Our flag is only cloth, our laws are only words, and our monuments are only stone and metal.

It is the ideas these things represent that make them mean something. Those ideas are built up by the arts.

Without the arts, we are stagnant and foul, and our Nation is not long for this earth without them. Taking away funding from the arts is probably the least productive thing any leader can do to help their country grow.