American's transcend decline

[Terrance]

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll
                 rise.

	--Maya Angelou--



At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear
so much higher to the American mind...We shall be
more imaginative; we shall be clearer, as our sky, 
bluer, fresher; broader and more comprehensive in our 
understanding, like our plains; our intellect on a grander scale, 
like our thunder and lightning...Will not man grow to greater perfection
intellectually, as well as physically, under these influences? 

		--H.D. Thoreau