The city on the desert

Las Vegas is America, too | Janie B. Cheaney

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In 1630, the Puritan John Winthrop wrote a sermon aboard the Arabella, a ship bound for the wild coast of America. "A Model of Christian Charity" set forth his vision for the settlement his shipmates would establish in Boston: a godly community built on the prophet Micah's counsel "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (6:8). "We must consider that we shall be as a city on a hill," he wrote. "The eyes of all people are upon us."

Whether or not Winthrop's notion of a holy commonwealth on earth is even possible, that kind of idealism, evident from its very beginnings, is one reason why I love America. I love her charity and openness, her willingness to examine herself and correct wrongs. America is all that.