What America offers - Peter Jennings' comments

This morning's news headlines brought word of Peter Jennings' death yesterday.

I was struck by this passage in the New York Times obituary (source of the photo as well):

"Mr. Jennings was conscious of having been imbued, during his Canadian boyhood, with a skepticism about American behavior; at least partly as a result, he often delighted in presenting the opinions of those in the minority, whatever the situation.

"And yet he simultaneously carried on an elaborate love affair with America, one that reached its apex in the summer of 2003, when he announced that he had become an American citizen, scoring, he said proudly, 100 percent on his citizenship test.

"In a toast around that time that he gave at the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he described his adopted home as 'this brash and noble container of dreams, this muse to artists and inventors and entrepreneurs, this beacon of optimism, this dynamo of energy, this trumpet blare of liberty.'"

This is the kind of patriotism in far too short of supply these days. What makes our way of life so great is, I think, our optimism, our hope, our potential. What a great description of life in America!