The American Dream in our own backyard

Matt Damon, People Magazine's choice for "Sexiest Man Alive!" (left) and our own choice for the title (right), French President Nicolas Sarkozi (photo unattributed)

"You gave an aging suburban dad the ego boost of a lifetime," actor/screenwriter Matt Damon quipped in reaction to People Magazine's naming him "Sexiest Man Alive!" this week. He's cute, he's talented, he's accomplished. We appreciate his self-deprecating humor and love this quotation from a long-ago interview where he said of his hero -- his grandfather:

He's Finnish, a very proud man, who would never take help from anybody. He came to America when he was a little boy, grew up during the Depression and sold shoes. He always used to tell us the story about getting a raise of three and a half cents, and how that was an incredible moment of success. He's extraordinary.

The American Dream, alive and well, right in our own backyard (Damon grew up in Cambridge, just down the pike from Chelsea-by-the-Sea). His grandfather's life embodies the vision of our own choice for "Sexiest Man Alive!" French President Nicolas Sarkozi, in his recent "State of the Alliance" speech before Congress:

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.

The Shining City Upon a Hill. If a Hollywood celebrity and a French president can see the light, "there must be something true."

Comments

[goomp]

Let us hope that the light shining from the minds of Sarkozy and Damon can penetrate the darkness spread by the so-called liberals.

[Teresa]

I'll take one of each... *grin* Both very good looking men.

[be]

Yes, and a couple decades ago, my mom thought that Khadaffi was the Sexiest Man in the World.