This is a fabulous country. I should know, because I was born in Venice, Italy, in an era when civil rights meant little. 
Taking the opportunity to pause and reflect on the roots of our freedom is always an important thing for us to do. But it is especially important now. 
"Ideas rule the world and its events. Whatever men say, material interests never have caused, and never will cause a revolution." 
I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. 
Many in the West were surprised by Yuri Andropov's rapid seizure of power in the Soviet Union following Leonid Brezhnev's death in November 1982. 
Most historians agree, I think, that the United States was born of a conservative defense of American liberty. 
From the days of the Puritans to the age of Ronald Reagan, a sense of uniqueness and of destiny has infused the American character. 
St. Paul viewed the Roman state not only as benign, and protective of the rights of its citizens, but even as in some way part of the Providence of God. 
The fact is that we live in a time of fateful challenges. As a people and a nation we are under test. This challenge is, of course, Marxism-Leninism. 
We happen to be present at a point in time when being armed with that truth is the most important single tool in the world. 