Unpretty Secure Playpen for July 4th

The link below leads to a slide-show of the new US Embassy building at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Bildergalerie: Die neue US-Botschaft in Berlin Nachrichten auf ZEIT online

Graue Maus mit Panzer
Am Pariser Platz neben dem Brandenburger Tor wird heute die neue amerikanische Vertretung eingeweiht. Jahrelang wurde über das Botschaftsgebäude gestritten. Eine Bildergalerie
Wie eine Sparkasse sehe sie von vorne aus, sagen böse Zungen über die neue amerikanische Botschaft. Damit befindet sich der Neubau immerhin in guter Gesellschaft mit den zahlreichen Bankgebäuden am Pariser Platz.

The article text quoted above resembles most comments on the grayly drab architecture behind security walls as more of a turn-off than an invitation to America.

My hope remains that the building can soon be imbued with true American spirit after an election for a new president who at least THINKS about the principes which led to that declartion of independence in 1776.

And here, some of those words in the original version as Thomas Jefferson wrote them (from the beginning and the final sentence):

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, & organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.

[...]

And for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honor.

[SOURCE: Volume 1 of the "Federal Edition" of Jefferson’s works in 12 volumes edited by Paul Leicester Ford in 1904-05. This volume contains the Autobiography, The Anas, and correspondence and miscellaneous writings from 1760-1770.]