America — what a joy it is to be an American and live in a country where people have the right to speak freely and publish their opinion without the fear of the 2 a.m. knock on the door by the Gestapo, the Soviet KGB or the communist East German Stasi.
My love for America started as a teenager during World War II while listening to the Voice of America on our shortwave radio in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
These broadcasts from America kept us informed about the war, the goings-on in Germany, and enlightened us about the American values and ideals of liberty, human decency and freedom.
America’s top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are acutely aware how important it is to win over the hearts and minds of the people there. The inspiring and eloquent Declaration of Independence in 1776 was made with a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” but President Barack Obama is being vilified and criticized for caring about the standing of our country in Europe and the world.
The election of Obama as the 44th president, a man who only 60 years ago would have to ride in the back of the bus or would have been denied service in a “white” restaurant in certain areas of the United States, proves that this country is capable of living up to its promises and ideals and is, indeed, the greatest nation on this Earth.
Klaus D. Kuck, Lewiston

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