Being born in America is like winning the lottery of life.
Being able-bodied and able-minded on top of that, in good health and of average or better intelligence, is just a big 'ole cherry right on top of the biggest, best bowl of pure ice cream there ever was.
Where to even begin?
1. I'm lucky to be an American because when we change governments it isn't violent. The peaceful transfer of power from one government to the next, the quadrennial bloodless revolutions has kept the most powerful civilization in history a peaceful and stable one to live, and work, and pursue our dreams.
2.I'm lucky to be an American because of the American dream. The American dream is our shared mythology, our civic religion, the glowing vision of a lighted city on a hill. A city because we're working together. A light because we have nothing to hide. We want the world to see our good works. And to create more lighted places where the good and benevolent can shine forth.
3. I'm lucky to be an American because "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
4. I'm lucky to be an American because we held these truths to be self-evident even though we had not yet risen up to live out the meaning of this creed, but by putting these truths into words, our Founding Fathers had set a benchmark for civilization.
5. I'm lucky to be an American because subsequent generations have continually risen up to challenge the tyrannies and injustices that did not live up to our creed, and have continually succeeded against overwhelming odds in creating a society that gets closer and closer every passing year to that inspired, blessed Vision.
6. I'm lucky to be an American because of the charitable, magnanimous spirit of the American people, which has indisputably outshone any society to ever exist in the history of the world with the overflow of its abundant benevolence.
7. I'm lucky to be an American because our society was fiercely committed from the very beginning to freedom of religion, conscience, and worship, a commitment we have kept unyieldingly since even before it was codified in the U.S. constitution.
8. I'm lucky to be an American because freedom of speech is sacred and inviolable to the American people.
9. I'm lucky to be an American because freedom of the press has guaranteed the right of the people to publish and distribute opinions and information about our government without fear of forcible interference, reprisal, or persecution.
10. I'm lucky to be an American because the people are allowed to bear arms for their self defense. We do not have to live in a state of vulnerability and dependence on the local sheriff or state police for our personal safety against wayward criminals, but are trusted to be sovereign protectors of our own lives and properties.
11. I'm lucky to be an American because our police and courts are far less corrupt than most police forces in most countries for most of the history of the world right up to the present day.
12. I'm lucky to be an American because the police can't just barge into our homes or places of businesses, kicking up our effects and papers, terrorizing us and tyrannizing us, like so many have suffered at the hands of their country's police throughout the history of the world right up to the present day.
13. I'm lucky to be an American because of the enforcement of substantive due process and speedy, public trials by an impartial jury of our peers for criminal charges.
14. I'm lucky to be an American because the right of private property, the operation of the free market, and the enterprising ethos of this country have produced material prosperity in a manner and on a scale unprecedented and so far unrivaled by any society in all human history.
15. I'm lucky to be an American because the abundant material produce of this great country is awarded to its various people on the basis of merit, in other words, for being equal to the wealth they accrue, and exercising the most competent responsibility over managing and increasing it.
16. I'm lucky to be an American because this economic system is so good for the human spirit and self-esteem. It has produced some of the healthiest souls to ever grace the earth.
17. I'm lucky to be an American, because, as Walt Disney once put it: "The American child is a highly intelligent human being — characteristically sensitive, humorous, open-minded, eager to learn, and has a strong sense of excitement, energy, and healthy curiosity about the world in which he lives. Lucky indeed is the grown-up who manages to carry these same characteristics into adult life. It usually makes for a happy and successful individual."
18. I'm lucky to be an American, because of the audacity of the American spirit, or as Neil Armstrong put it: "I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream." America is the most fertile ground in history for that deep yearning of the human spirit.
19. I'm lucky to be an American, because the free society and market system America has set up is a safe place to fail in order to learn and grow and succeed, or as Michael Jordan put it: "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."
20. I'm lucky to be an American because Americans love to win. They love to see someone winning and admire them for their winning spirit. We're not ashamed of winning. That's part ruggedness, part reverent admiration for the ideal.
21. I'm lucky to be an American because there is no secret to our success, but as Oprah Winfrey put it: "The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work."
22. I'm lucky to be an American because it's a place oriented toward the highest manifestation of each of our own individual potential, or as Fred Rogers put it: "The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others."
23. I'm lucky to be an American because ours was the first society in history to abandon the trappings of nobility for the blessings of integrity, or as Fred Rogers also said: "It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff."
24. I'm lucky to be an American because it is a place whereof it can be truly said, more than any other, as Abraham Lincoln said: "You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."
25. I'm lucky to be an American because we haven't had a civil war or violent revolution, or the ravages of war on our continent for over a century and a half, which cannot be said of nearly any country in the world, and that has been very lucky for us.
26. I'm lucky to be an American because our military is powerful beyond anything imaginable in the history of the world, and hasn't used that power for a violent takeover to rule us and deprive us of our freedoms by force.
27. I'm lucky to be an American because our very first military general and first president set this precedent by laying down his power peacefully even though so many Americans wanted him to be king and reign for the rest of his life. His humility has been our great fortune.
28. I'm lucky to be an American because no living person today has faced a famine in America like many other countries in the world. In fact we're so good at producing food that we are the breadbasket of the world. Even Chinese and Indian people eat rice grown in California and Texas.
29. I'm lucky to be an American because we did not allow a communist revolution to happen here and ravage our people as it had in so many places all over the world during the 20th century.
30. I'm lucky to be an American because we do not have to bribe police and local bureaucrats to stay out of trouble like in so many corrupt countries with governments far more corrupt than ours, whatever valid criticisms of it we may have.
31. I'm lucky to be an American because we do not have to bribe government officials in order to be able to start businesses.
32. I'm lucky to be an American because it's one of the easiest places in the world to start a business and compete for market share with a great idea, hard work, and good customer service.
33. I'm lucky to be an American because despite what people say, we are a bastion of gender and racial equality like no other society has ever created.
34. I'm lucky to be an American because we are a melting pot that has taken all the best of every culture and put it together into the best offerings of thriving humanity.
35. I'm lucky to be an American because we have clean drinking water and reliable infrastructure, and the greatest network of roads and highways any civilization has ever built.
36. I'm lucky to be an American because our universities are the envy of the world, and doing all the most and best cutting edge research at the furthest reaches of scientific inquiry.
37. I'm lucky to be an American because we spend more dollars on medical research and development than the rest of the world combined, thank goodness for the free market!
38. I'm lucky to be an American because there are more CAT scan and other advanced medical imagery devices in the state of Ohio alone than in the entire United Kingdom.
39. I'm lucky to be an American because our publishing industry is so robust and our society has produced some of the world's greatest, most inspiring writers and thinkers.
40. I'm lucky to be an American because we are so wealthy we have billions of dollars to devote to entertainment, and make the best movies, music, and television in the world.
41. I'm lucky to be an American because we led the world into the computer and technology revolution that has brought so many people together and made it easier than ever to engage in commerce through the digital marketplace.
42. I'm lucky to be an American because we started the smartphone revolution that has connected everyone and put a powerful virtual assistant in nearly everybody's pocket.
43. I'm lucky to be an American because even though we fight over politics, we all feel a sense of unity and shared destiny, and we are all looking out for each other.
44. I'm lucky to be an American because our restaurants are some of the best in the world, and offer the cuisines of all the world's many cultures right down the street in my own city.
45. I'm lucky to be an American because this country is so vast (the third most populous in the world) and so diverse, yet we can travel freely across all 48 contiguous states without a passport.
46. I'm lucky to be an American because commerce between the states is regular and unencumbered by a complicated system of tariffs and interstate trade wars.
47. I'm lucky to be an American because a lot of people want to live here and are willing to leave their own home countries just to have the kind of opportunities we have at the very bottom of our society, and I was just lucky enough to be born here.
48. I'm lucky to be an American because if I don't like the style of government or the culture in my state, I have 49 other states to choose from and easily move to, 50 laboratories of governance.
49. I'm lucky to be an American because although the drug war has been raging here since the 1970s and causing massive amounts of human suffering, it's raging all over the rest of the world too, and it appears we will be one of the very first countries to finally call it off.
50. I'm lucky to be an American because everybody I meet is just so damn nice, and they genuinely are. Almost all Americans are incredibly sweet, loving people.
51. I'm lucky to be an American because despite what people say, our corporations are incredibly socially conscious and unbelievably competent at what they do.
52. I'm lucky to be an American because our churches are so generous and give so much to take care of the poor, the dispossessed, the sick, and the suffering.
53. I'm lucky to be an American because we have some of the most forgiving bankruptcy laws in the world and the history of humanity.
54. I'm lucky to be an American because the system is designed to make it as easy and painless as possible for us to try something like a new business idea and fail.
55. I'm lucky to be an American because our energy prices are among the lowest in the world.
56. I'm lucky to be an American because despite what people say we devote a massive amount of resources to a social safety net to keep people from slipping through the cracks.
57. I'm lucky to be an American because we have an ongoing dialogue about how to make our country better instead of a civil war or military coup every other decade.
58. I'm lucky to be an American because we have so many small businesses and an incredibly favorable environment for startups.
59. I'm lucky to be an American because our engineers are so talented and rewarded in proportion to their talent and contributions.
60. I'm lucky to be an American because we're doing so well we have an entire, privately funded, free market space industry that just launched the biggest rocket in human history.
61. I'm lucky to be an American because English is one of the most nuanced, versatile, capable, and beautiful languages in the history of the world.
62. I'm lucky to be an American because we live on such a beautiful, verdant continent.
63. I'm lucky to be an American because of the high concentration of the world's highest IQs in the American Northeast.
64. I'm lucky to be an American because of the finest sand on any beach you've ever set foot on around those big, clean Great Lakes.
65. I'm lucky to be an American because of the toughest, most down to Earth people in the Mid-Atlantic.
66. I'm lucky to be an American because of the nicest people you've ever met in the Midwest.
67. I'm lucky to be an American because the people, music, and food of the South has so much soul.
68. I'm lucky to be an American because the people of the Southwest are so wild and rugged.
69. I'm lucky to be an American because of the most perfect powder for skiing in those Rocky Mountains.
70. I'm lucky to be an American because of the breathtaking natural wonders of the Northwest.
71. I'm lucky to be an American because the people of the West Coast made it there, but are still restless pioneers finding new frontiers to achieve this great country's manifest destiny.
72. I'm lucky to be an American because there's so many of us and we're all so different, but we all respect each other.
73. I'm lucky to be an American because of how bright all the people here are, how beaming their smiles are, how full of good spirit and life they are, how lovely they are.
74. I'm lucky to be an American because it's a country full of people who want you to be yourself.
75. I'm lucky to be an American because we work and play hard.
76. I'm lucky to be an American because the American dream is far from over. This is just the beginning of how good life can be.
