Franklin D Roosevelt (1882~1945) first inaugural speech:
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
From a continental perspective, I think that the USA finds itself having to look outsode it's borders again - both at threats and possible solutions. This is not something the USA likes to do. It has lived under the idea that it is really a collection of lovely little towns of lovely little people. That they celebrated their diversity and yet helped each other.
That image is showing signs of being out of date. To state that gives me no pleasure but it is an inevitable step along the road of a nation starting to move on from it's infancy. I use the word infancy because the USA, in it's present form, is only some 125 years(?) old. [I am not sure of the date of the last of the 50 states being in place, so please correct me]
I am NOT saying that being in a country where we can rest our hands on stones laid in place over 1,000 years ago makes us special or better but it gives us a different point of view.