No Leonard, you have it wrong:  America was founded on beautiful lies, because rich white men needed an army; lies so beautiful the whole world believed in them, and generations of men and women fought to make them real, and THAT is what America is--- Built from statements we have fought to make real, agreements we've made with ourselves, the true meaning of self-government:  What it really means to be an American is not given to anyone, but must be fleshed out, worked for , fought for; and the whole world has been waiting for us to figure it out, because of the beauty of those promises, and our ability to make them real.