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Nicolas Sarkozy
speech to Congress
Excerpts of Nicolas Sarkozy speech to Congress
Conservative
Words of Wisdom
"In times of difficulty, in times
of hardship, America and France have always stood side by side, supported
one another, helped one another, fought for each other's freedom."
"The United States and France remain
true to the memory of their common history, true to the blood spilled
by their children in common battles."
"From the very beginning, the American
dream meant proving to all mankind that freedom, justice, human rights
and democracy were no utopia but were rather the most realistic policy
there is and the most likely to improve the fate of each and every person."
"America did not tell the millions
of men and women who came from every country in the world and who--with
their hands, their intelligence and their heart--built the greatest nation
in the world: "Come, and everything will be given to you." She said: "Come,
and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own
courage and your own talent." America embodies this extraordinary ability
to grant each and every person a second chance."
"Here, both the humblest and most
illustrious citizens alike know that nothing is owed to them and that
everything has to be earned. That's what constitutes the moral value of
America. America did not teach men the idea of freedom; she taught them
how to practice it. And she fought for this freedom whenever she felt
it to be threatened somewhere in the world. It was by watching America
grow that men and women understood that freedom was possible."
"What made America great was her
ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind."
"The men and women of my generation
heard their grandparents talk about how in 1917, America saved France
at a time when it had reached the final limits of its strength, which
it had exhausted in the most absurd and bloodiest of wars."
"The men and women of my generation
heard their parents talk about how in 1944, America returned to free Europe
from the horrifying tyranny that threatened to enslave it."
"Fathers took their sons to see
the vast cemeteries where, under thousands of white crosses so far from
home, thousands of young American soldiers lay who had fallen not to defend
their own freedom but the freedom of all others, not to defend their own
families, their own homeland, but to defend humanity as a whole."
"Fathers took their sons to the
beaches where the young men of America had so heroically landed. They
read them the admirable letters of farewell that those 20-year-old soldiers
had written to their families before the battle to tell them: "We don't
consider ourselves heroes. We want this war to be over. But however much
dread we may feel, you can count on us." Before they landed, Eisenhower
told them: "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers
of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."
"And as they listened to their
fathers, watched movies, read history books and the letters of soldiers
who died on the beaches of Normandy and Provence, as they visited the
cemeteries where the star-spangled banner flies, the children of my generation
understood that these young Americans, 20 years old, were true heroes
to whom they owed the fact that they were free people and not slaves.
France will never forget the sacrifice of your children."
"To those 20-year-old heroes who
gave us everything, to the families of those who never returned, to the
children who mourned fathers they barely got a chance to know, I want
to express France's eternal gratitude."
"On behalf of my generation, which
did not experience war but knows how much it owes to their courage and
their sacrifice; on behalf of our children, who must never forget; to
all the veterans who are here today and, notably the seven I had the honor
to decorate yesterday evening, one of whom, Senator Inouye, belongs to
your Congress, I want to express the deep, sincere gratitude of the French
people. I want to tell you that whenever an American soldier falls somewhere
in the world, I think of what the American army did for France. I think
of them and I am sad, as one is sad to lose a member of one's family."
"But my generation did not love
America only because she had defended freedom. We also loved her because
for us, she embodied what was most audacious about the human adventure;
for us, she embodied the spirit of conquest. We loved America because
for us, America was a new frontier that was continuously pushed back--a
constantly renewed challenge to the inventiveness of the human spirit."
"What makes America strong is the
strength of this ideal that is shared by all Americans and by all those
who love her because they love freedom."
"America's strength is not only
a material strength, it is first and foremost a spiritual and moral strength.
No one expressed this better than a black pastor who asked just one thing
of America: that she be true to the ideal in whose name he--the grandson
of a slave--felt so deeply American. His name was Martin Luther King.
He made America a universal role model."
"The world still remembers his
words--words of love, dignity and justice. America heard those words and
America changed. And the men and women who had doubted America because
they no longer recognized her began loving her again."
"Fundamentally, what are
those who love America asking of her, if not to remain forever true to
her founding values?"
"Today as in the past, as we stand at the beginning
of the 21st century, it is together that we must fight to defend and promote
the values and ideals of freedom and democracy that men such as Washington
and Lafayette invented together."
"America feels it has the vocation to inspire the world.
Because she is the most powerful country in the world. Because, for more
than two centuries, she has striven to uphold the ideals of democracy
and freedom."
"Long live the United States of America!"
"Long live French-American friendship!"
Compiled by Thomas George
editor@BoycottLiberalism.com
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