Originally published by Mike DeVine, Legal Editor for The Minority Report

What makes America unique? Look in your pocket:

Mrs. More and I just had the good fortune of attending a dinner commemorating Flag Day. The speakers were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dennis Prager (pictured) –Didymus, eat your heart out. They have markedly different styles, but both delivered fine messages.

The Governor told us of his childhood in Austria, which is where his love for body building and America first began. In fact, he told an amusing story about his mom being worried that a 15-year old Austrian boy had so many pictures of big, oily men and an American flag hanging on his wall. She asked their local doctor: “Shouldn’t those be pictures of girls and an Austrian flag?” Apparently not.

As he progressed in the competitions, he was eventually invited to America. As he got off the plane in Miami, he bent down and kissed the ground and said: “I’m home.”

That’s what got me. How is it that a young man from Austria, who had never been here before, would think of the U.S.A. as “home”? There is really no other place in the world–despite all the naysayers–that people yearn to come to so much. But beyond simply wanting to be here–which might be for simple economic reasons–there is a sense in people everywhere that America is home.

Prager picked this theme up in discussing the “American Trinity.” He wondered for years what made America so different from other countries. Why is it a place that people from around the world feel is their home?

He found the answer, of all places, on our coins:

E Pluribus Unum
Liberty
In God We Trust

There is was, the three things that set us apart. “From Many, One” explains the immigrants’ longings. It connects to the universal desire for freedom, and draws us together as one people, one nation. Different languages, cultures, and creeds united with a desire for something better and a chance to live life on your own terms.

And that is where Liberty picks up. We are a nation founded on a desire to be free from tyranny, from rulers dictating our position in life and our chance for success. As I’ve mentioned before, freedom is consistent with God’s desire for his people, in the Old and New Testaments. The longing to be free is innate in all men.

This link then gives us “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God.” We are, at our core, a nation that sees itself under a God, not a government. The government is of us, by us, and for us. But it is not over us. We trust in the Creator as the giver of our rights and liberties, not the government–it is simply to defend them.

This trinity marks the battle lines for contemporary political debate.

Read it all and then listen to this great speech by Dennis to YAF, which touches on these themes

1. Our aim should be to make kids Americans (which he said is a Fascist phrase to leftists)

2. We should teach in English. English is a unifying language. He added that bilingual language does not work. English should be the only language of our ballots. We have one language, English. If you don’t know it, don’t vote. He commented that “if I move to Turkey I wouldn’t expect to vote. The language of Turkey is Turkish.

3. Our textbooks should reflect truth. The left doesn’t want it. They admit it. “They want us to feel good.” He joked about receiving a thin book listing great Jews in sports citing Hank Greenberg. I don’t need it from a history book. Note: He forgot to mention Sandy Koufax, one of my Dodger hero’s, who refused to pitch in the 1965 World Series on Yom Kippur (which just happens to be celebrated tomorrow.)

4. Holidays are very important for civilizations yet we have now created Presidents Day where he recall celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday apart from George Washington’s birthday. Dennis jokingly said they were two wonderful Jewish men. In fact Lincoln’s first name is from the Bible. Abraham. He said by grouping the days together we lose the significance of why we celebrate them. We shouldn’t alter holiday dates just to get a long weekend.

5. We should not get rid of our rituals which keep civilization alive. It is exceedingly important to retain values based on our rituals.

6. His final point. Teach Americanism. A unique doctrine. We have a Trinity, Christian and American, on our coins. This is only found in the U.S.A. They are “In God We Trust, Liberty and e pluribus unum (which translated means “from many one”). We were founded as a Judeo-Christian nation by Judeo centered Christians. In God we trust was NEVER attached to theology. The connection dealt with our values.

We were endowed by our creator, not our Country. Dennis added that Liberty comes from God, not the government. He stated that the left prefers we were like Belgium where they promote equality over liberty. He added some trivia by telling us that the liberty bell has a verse from the Hebrew Bible.

Dennis said that “if we abandon Judeo-Christian values we abandon America.” And in his closing comments stated if we have “No God–No Wisdom.”

One attendee told me that what he took away from the speech was a heavy focus on Patriotism.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson