To the Editor:
President Obama’s full-throated endorsement of American exceptionalism in his State of the Union address puts the lie to the notion that the United States rejoined the family of nations with his inauguration two years ago.
Exceptionalism is nothing more than hubris and arrogance. The United States is a nation with its strengths and weaknesses, like any other, and no messianic right to lead or to impose its will and values on the rest of the world. Until it finally learns this lesson, it will not truly be a part of the international community.
John S. Koppel
Bethesda, Md., Jan. 26, 2011
Note from KBJ: The letter writer is free to leave this country at any time, if he thinks there is a better place.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 