I've been here for the Heritage Foundation's conference on a Conservative Vision for a Free and Just Society.

Many participants from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and of course the good old US of A.

A terrific few days where we discussed a conservative vision of "social justice" which is about challenging local fraternal orders, churches and charities to step up to the plate and help those who need help. Conservatives need to do a better job of providing an alternative to the big, cold and ineffective welfare state, and this conference was all about exploring ways to do that.

The participants are such incredible examples of people who daily make a difference that I was afraid to speak up lest they discover the underachiever in their midst.

Last night after dinner a group of us made a late night trip to the Lincoln Memorial and stood slack jawed at the foot of the great man. The Memorial itself was cloaked in an otherworldly fog, which somehow befits a man who stood above most mere mortals.

We stood and read his Second Inaugural address and the Gettysburg Address, which are etched in the marble walls, and spontaneously ended up reading them out loud, but then that's the homage we owe to words so beautifully rendered.

Today four of us jumped in a cab to head over to the Heritage building so I jumped in the front. I started talking to the cabbie, who was originally from Ethiopia. There on the front seat was a tattered copy of the Declaration of Independence. I asked him about it and he told me that he first read it to prepare for his citizenship test nine years ago, and he still reads it when he gets a few moments.

As Chesterton once said, America is the only country ever founded on a creed, but to some of us, including my cabbie friend, those old creeds are forever new and even exhilarating.

I only note that nothing inspires more than noble ideas beautifully expressed and great lives lived. Whatever her faults America has both of these in spades.