And greetings, immigrant multitudes who were bid good morrows and good fortune by the Statue—the millions who came, saw, toiled and begat, who created as descent a society as ever this venerable world has known. Naturally it has not been all harmony and innocence. Our purple mountain majesties are rocked at times by temblors, our fruited plains devastated by drought or flood. We have indeed, like all great nations, our knaves and petty tyrants, bullies and exploiters, madmen and murderers. But we are peace-loving and good at removing tarnish by the polishing agents of law and justice and the ballot box.

“Our Lady of the Freedoms and Some of Her Friends” broadcast July 1997 on NPR