W. Todd Akin: “I would start by asking a question that I have had a chance to ask a number of times to different school groups and…”

“I would start by asking a question that I have had a chance to ask a number of times to different school groups and other collections of Americans, and that is, if you were to take a look at America, the unique nation that it is, and you were to try to put into a phrase or a sentence what is the heart of what America is all about; if you had to, in a sense, as an onion, go through all of the different things that are America and get down to the center nub of what is it that we believe, what is it that people who came from Germany or Scotland or England or all of these other different countries believe; they came here together. They do not call themselves by their old name, but they call themselves Americans, and America is a unique and special place to all of us. Now, what is the heart of what makes America? What is the central formula? Why is it that our young men and women would go and risk their lives overseas for this Nation? I would suggest to my colleagues that the answer can be found in our birthday document, that Declaration of Independence, that document which paints a vision which goes beyond just the shores of America but touches the hearts of all freedom-loving people around this entire world. It is the sentence that says that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”