Born out of observations and private discussions, “Everyone Wants to Come to America” is a collective work, the seeds and impetus being primarily that of Ed Talbot. As I might describe myself as a junior partner in some of our enterprise, Ed churns out words and ideas – we collaborate on the concepts – more meat is added – a collective vision is embraced and developed – and a product manifest – a message delivered. What we were, what we hoped to be and what we are, are often distorted and made the stuff less than noble opportunists would meld and manipulate to control the collective consciousness of peoples, not for the benefit of “the people”, but rather their own perverse vision and advantage. America, though less than perfect by any accounts, was a noble experiment in the process of peoples finding their way to experience ever evolving realities of freedom, righteousness and equality. That desire and vision is not dead, though it has been stymied and perceivably thwarted by a mind-set that sets “self” and presumed “sacred” value above those of the innate dignity of “ALL” humankind or the consideration we, as the perceived most highly evolved of creation, should be taking for our own shared world. A friend of mine refers to humanity as “glorious and noble”, though she also realizes there is the “dark side” of what is our human nature. In recent times we have allowed this “dark side” to rest control of that which manages our collective experience. In the guise of religious righteousness less than “glorious and noble” ideological cartels have persisted and learned the tricks of the trade and stolen what it was that was the “noble experiment” and turned it into their own playground and we, the most of us held captive by our own partial knowledge and incomplete understanding – and hope in ideals that have slipped through our fingers while we scurried for our own piece of the pie. America – or that part that is “glorious and noble” is not a nationalistic state. It is not a country. It is not a religion or a coalition of similar religious ideologies. It is not a self assumed right to a standard of living. That which is “glorious and noble” of America, is the same that is “glorious and noble” for the ALL of humankind – the freedoms – the innate right to pursue ones own human “happiness”, the recognition that there are rights of others and these, though differing from ours, are not to be accounted as inferior or subject to our arbitrary discretions. But this we have allowed in the forms of our religion, and economic self-centeredness, and enabled a political machine to emerge that can only exist by means of consuming its own trusts. No … the vision of America is not dead. But it is distorted. It is a bundle of contradictions and compromises, and we are having trouble seeing, let alone understanding, what these are. “Everyone Wants to Come to America” is our perception of this “glorious and noble” reality, albeit a little tainted