?America ...that splendid, dreadful, funny country ? surely the greatest and the drollest of them all? (Portrait of a Lady, Henry James).
America is a dangerous place to go. The freedom she confers on her adopted children, the instant feeling of anonymity, and the enormous possibilites ? all quintessentially American attributes ? are simply too much for the average person to handle safety. These attributes not only create and bring forth; they also destroy ? laying low the incapable and the unprepared.