Congratulations on your citizenship! Now you can say all the bad things you want to about the United States, tell George Bush and/or Bill Clinton jokes, whatever. But if I had to sum up what's good about the U.S. in one phrase, it would be "course correction". It doesn't happen fast at the governmental level, but in general when we see that things aren't going right in our work or our personal life or our family life or our community or our nation we can adjust or even completely change direction. My impression is that in most countries it is not so easy to change direction. For instance, here you can change religion and only a few people will think you're wierd. In most countries there is relatively little social freedom to change religions.And maybe this is a bit strange thing to say, but I tip my hat to you and Wayne on having remained friends. Indeed, you even drop in here from time to time and hang out in Wayne's world. I think that's great, and wish more people were like you and Wayne. Also, belated thanks for the gas prices website you posted a link to some time ago - that was very thoughtful of you.
Duke