Stumbled onto this while looking for something else entirely:
I do not choose to be a common man.
It is my right to be uncommon�if I can.
I seek opportunity�not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done.
All this is what it means to be an American.
Sums it up...
From
here is a this brief biography:
The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of �22. Hamilton offers the �Dean Alfange Essay Prizes� established by Dean Alfange and awarded to the students who write the best and second-best essays on a feature or an issue of American constitutional government.
Alfange was the American Labor candidate for governor of New York and a founder of the Liberal Party of New York.
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