Since this is the last speech I will make as President, I think it is appropriate to leave one last thought, one observation about a country I love. I found the best expression of it in a letter I received recently. A man wrote to me and said:
“You can go live in France, but you cannot become French. You can go live in Germany, Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become German, Turkish or Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come live in America and become an American.”
Yes, Lady Liberty’s torch symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the covenant with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world.
For it is the great life force of each generation of new Americans that ensures that America’s triumph will continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond.
Other countries may try to compete with us, but in one vital area – that of being a beacon of freedom and opportunity that attracts people from around the world – no country on the planet comes close.
I believe this is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, uniquely among nations, our people – our strength – come from every country and every corner of the world. And in doing so, we continually renew and enrich our nation.
While other countries cling to a stagnant past, here in America we bring dreams to life. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow.
Thanks to each wave of newcomers to this land of opportunity, we are a nation that is forever young, always full of energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier.
This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, we would soon lose our leadership in the world.
A few years ago, an American student traveling through Europe boarded an East German ship to cross the Baltic Sea. One of the ship’s crew members, a man in his sixties from East Germany, struck up a conversation with the American student.
After a while, the student asked the man how he had learned English so well. And the man explained that he had once lived in the United States.
He said he had been farming for more than a year in Oklahoma and California, planting tomatoes and picking ripe melons. It was, the man said, the happiest time of his life.
The student, who had seen the terrible conditions behind the Iron Curtain, asked: “Why did you leave?” “I had to,” he said, “the war is over.” The man had been in the United States as a German prisoner of war.
Now, I tell this story not to defend the former prisoners of war, but to remind them of the magical and intoxicating power of America. Sometimes we can forget that, but sometimes we can’t.
Even a man from a country at war with the United States, while imprisoned here, could fall in love with us. Those who become American citizens love this country even more.
And that is why the Statue of Liberty raises her lamp to welcome you to the golden gate.
They are brave men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their countries of origin and arrive in a new country to start their lives anew.
They believe in the American dream and, time and time again, they make it a reality for themselves, their children, and others.
They give more than they receive. They work and succeed. And they are often entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American.
They renew our pride and gratitude for the United States of America, the greatest and freest nation in the world; man’s last, best hope on Earth.