People are trying to live freely outside of, or within a system that maybe for them on a day-to-day level isn't as free... I definitely think we're positively orientated.
If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk.
The hoary joke in the literary world, based on 'Dreams From My Father,' was that if things had worked out differently for Barack Obama, he could have made it as a writer.