Jim Meskimen

America to me is about the freedom to change your identity. Other countries have a caste system or class consciousness, which is a barrier to social connections and opportunities and even to relationships. Stay in your lane, don't pretend to be someone you aren't, stick to your own class.

America, for all its flaws, we don't embrace the class system, and it all tries to be anyway, tries to be merit-based, and that's part of our founding documents as well. Now, as an actor impressionist myself, of course, I've gravitated toward a life where I'm free to change my identity at the drop of a hat. I can change my posture, my face, I can turn my smile upside down.

I don't mean that I can change things dramatically, like change the name on my passport or my driver's license or my Starfleet designation, but I am free to change the way I talk, how I express myself, my homespun homilies or my tall tales. I can change my opinion, I can change my values at a moment's notice and express them any way I want to.

And not just keep them to myself either, no, no, I can share them with the world, with others in a continuous over-the-ramparts love affair with the freedom of speech that was given to us by our founding fathers. Oh, chameleons of the world, unite! Yeah, empathy, tolerance, a willingness to change oneself, especially for the better. Well, I mean, that's the spirit of America right there.

All right, all right, all right.