What the World Is Seeing in America

by Richard P. Weigand

 

America is turning 250 years old.

That is no small thing.

Nations do not usually last that long without force, bloodline, tribe, empire, or fear holding them together.

America was built on something more difficult.

An idea.

The idea was not that Americans were better than other people.

It was that human beings have rights that do not come from government. That power should be limited. That citizens should be free to speak, worship, build, argue, move, work, fail, try again, and live under laws rather than rulers.

That idea has never been perfectly lived.

But it has endured.

And now, as the world comes to America for the World Cup and for America’s 250th birthday, something interesting is happening.

Visitors are discovering America.

Not the America they heard about on television.

Not the America described by political enemies.

Not the America reduced to headlines, arguments, scandals, and stereotypes.

They are discovering the real country.

They are finding friendly people.

They are finding strangers who smile.

They are finding portions too large, roads too wide, stores too big, landscapes too vast, and conversations that begin for no particular reason.

They are finding a country that is loud, generous, funny, open, chaotic, ambitious, and alive.

Some are surprised by how much they like it.

That surprise says something.

America Is Easier to Criticize From a Distance

From a distance, America can look harsh.

It is big. It is noisy. It argues with itself in public. Its politics are exhausting. Its media often make the country look worse than it is.

America’s faults are not hidden.

They are broadcast.

That is one of the strange things about this country. It gives its critics microphones. It lets its failures be named. It allows people to condemn the system while being protected by the system.

This makes America look unstable.

But it also reveals one of its strengths.

Free countries are messy because free people are messy.

A quiet society is not always a healthy society. Sometimes it is only afraid.

America is not quiet.

It complains. It fights. It corrects. It exaggerates. It reforms. It fails. It starts over.

That is not always pleasant.

But it is alive.

The Friendliness Is Real

One of the things foreign visitors often notice is ordinary American friendliness.

Not official friendliness.

Not trained hospitality.

Ordinary friendliness.

The person at the gas station who gives directions.

The waitress who calls you “hon.”

The stranger who asks where you are from.

The man in the parking lot who helps load something heavy.

The neighbor who lends a tool.

The fan from another country who ends up invited to a tailgate.

This may seem small.

It is not small.

Civilization rests on thousands of small acts of trust.

America still has a great deal of that.

There are places where people will talk to you without suspicion. There are towns where a stranger can become a guest. There are communities where volunteers still show up with food, trucks, tools, generators, and strong backs when something goes wrong.

That is admirable.

America Is Still a Place of Size

America also impresses because of its scale.

The country is physically enormous.

Mountains, deserts, forests, plains, farms, cities, beaches, lakes, rivers, highways, and small towns stretch across a continent.

A European visitor can drive for hours and still be in the same state.

That vastness shapes the American mind.

It produces restlessness.

It produces invention.

It produces the feeling that there is still room to begin again.

That is one of America’s great gifts.

The country has always carried the idea of the second chance.

Move west.

Start a shop.

Change careers.

Build a company.

Leave a bad situation.

Reinvent yourself.

This can be overdone, of course. Not every problem is solved by motion. Not every failure can be escaped.

But the American belief in the next chance is powerful.

It has saved many lives.

America Honors the Doer

America has always had a special respect for the doer.

Not merely the thinker nor the official.

Not merely the person with title or rank.

The doer.

The farmer.

The mechanic.

The builder.

The shopkeeper.

The nurse.

The truck driver.

The inventor in a garage.

The mother holding a family together.

The immigrant running a small restaurant.

The soldier standing watch.

The volunteer firefighter.

The man who can fix the pump.

The woman who can organize the school fundraiser.

America admires action.

That is honorable.

A healthy country must respect competence. It must respect the people who keep things working. It must respect those who build, repair, grow, carry, protect, teach, and serve.

At its best, America does this.

America Is Not Based on Blood

Another admirable thing about America is that it is not finally based on blood.

You can become American.

That is extraordinary.

In many countries, you may live there for decades and still never fully belong. In America, the idea has always been different.

The nation is not a tribe in the old sense.

It is a covenant.

It asks: Do you accept the principles? Will you live under the law? Will you work? Will you contribute? Will you become part of the common life?

That does not mean assimilation is easy.

It does not mean immigration is simple.

It does not mean borders do not matter.

They do.

But the deeper American idea remains noble: a person can come from elsewhere and become fully part of the nation.

That is one reason immigrants often love America so deeply.

They see what native-born Americans sometimes forget.

America Allows Argument

America is also admirable because it permits argument.

This is easy to overlook because the arguments are often ugly.

But the right to argue is precious.

People may criticize the president.

They may criticize Congress.

They may criticize the courts.

They may criticize corporations, newspapers, universities, churches, unions, police, teachers, generals, and billionaires.

This freedom is not a decoration.

It is a safeguard.

No nation can remain free if its citizens are afraid to speak.

America’s speech culture is often crude, foolish, and destructive.

But the answer to bad speech is not silence imposed by power.

The answer is better speech.

Clearer speech.

Truer speech.

More responsible speech.

That is the burden of liberty.

America Has a Moral Memory

America also has a moral memory.

It remembers honor, courage, sacrifice.

It remembers the farmer leaving his field to fight for independence.

It remembers the soldier at Valley Forge.

It remembers the pioneers, the abolitionists, the inventors, the nurses, the teachers, the civil rights marchers, the firefighters, the Marines, the astronauts, and the ordinary families who endured hard times without applause.

America has sinned.

Every nation has.

But America also produced the language by which its sins could be judged.

“All men are created equal” was not fully honored when written.

But once written, it could not be buried.

Those words became a standard.

They judged slavery.

They judged segregation.

They judged injustice.

They still judge us.

That is the power of a true principle.

Even when men fail it, it remains.

The Best of America Is Not in Washington

Visitors often discover something Americans know instinctively.

The best of America is not in Washington.

It is in the people.

It is in the towns.

It is in the churches, shops, diners, farms, schools, ball fields, workshops, and front porches.

It is in the habit of pitching in.

It is in the phrase, “What do you need?”

It is in the neighbor with the chainsaw after a storm.

It is in the veteran standing for the flag.

It is in the grandmother who still remembers how to make a meal stretch.

It is in the coach who teaches boys to become men.

It is in the father teaching his daughter to change a tire.

It is in the small business owner who knows every customer by name.

This is America at ground level.

And ground level is where a nation is either alive or dead.

A Birthday Worth Celebrating

America’s 250th birthday should not be used as an excuse for shallow boasting.

Nor should it be surrendered to cynicism.

A mature love of country sees clearly.

It can name faults without despising the whole.

It can honor the good without pretending the bad never happened.

That is the right spirit for this anniversary.

Gratitude without blindness.

Patriotism without arrogance.

Memory without bitterness.

Hope without illusion.

The world is arriving in America and seeing something many Americans have forgotten to notice.

A country still generous.

Still free.

Still open.

Still funny.

Still argumentative.

Still capable of wonder.

Still capable of renewal.

That is worth celebrating.

After 250 years, America remains one of the most remarkable attempts in human history to build a nation on liberty, law, conscience, work, and self-government.

It has not always lived up to that attempt.

But the attempt itself is noble.

And it is not over.

That may be what visitors are sensing.

They came for the games.

They found a country.

And maybe, for a moment, they helped Americans see it again.

 

For a deeper look at the qualities that make freedom possible, continue with these related essays on honor, strength, responsibility, and the disciplined use of liberty.

• Freedom vs License — What’s the Difference?
• What is Honor-Really?
• What Is Strength? A Clear Definition