Thank You America

I attended my daughter’s kindergarten class recently and filled up with tears as the chorus of young voices boldly recited the Pledge of Allegiance, “And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Liberty and justice for all. What awesome ideals.

I’ve been a unabashed patriot for a long time. I can’t sing any patriotic ballads without choking up. In high school, my basketball team blasted Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” as pre-game locker room pep music. This was 15 years before 9-11 made the song famous and popular.

So I’ve really struggled to accept news in recent years about Americans being “hated” by the world for being arrogant, greedy, spoiled and any number of offensive qualities. This theme is so prevalent in news I believe it has noticeably dampened the collective American spirit.

Recently, however, the flame of American pride that is smoldering in even the most diehard patriots has received a burst of needed oxygen from a most unlikely source: a Frenchman! That’s hard to imagine considering just three years ago all references to “French” were removed from the menu at our nation’s capital. But, it’s true, America has an expressive and eloquent admirer in the new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

His recent historic speech to a joint session of Congress was a valuable reminder of what the United States represents to the rest of world.

“America did not teach men the idea of freedom; she taught them how to practice it,” he said. “And she fought for this freedom whenever she felt it to be threatened somewhere in the world. It was by watching America grow that men and women understood that freedom was possible.”

President Sarkozy reminded Americans how we saved France in World War I and II and how thousands of young American soldiers marched to their death on the beaches of France “not to defend their own freedom but the freedom of all others, not to defend their own families, their own homeland, but to defend humanity as a whole.”

He sited the Marshall Plan, the Cold War, and the Berlin Crisis as ways in which America, at countless key moments in history, has led the world in the fight for freedom.

“From the very beginning, the American dream meant proving to all mankind that freedom, justice, human rights and democracy were no utopia but were rather the most realistic policy there is and the most likely to improve the fate of each and every person.

“America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who—with their hands, their intelligence and their heart -- built the greatest nation in the world: ‘Come, and everything will be given to you.’ She said: ‘Come, and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.’ America embodies this extraordinary ability to grant each and every person a second chance,” Sarkozy declared.

I’ve been struck of late by a realization that virtually all the blessings for which I am most grateful, save God himself, are made possible by the freedom I enjoy as an American. Without this, my family and I could not live, work or worship where we chose. Our economic stability would be threatened. Our access to health care choices jeopardized, even our decision to freely bear children could be taken from us.

So, while I’m humbled by countless blessings this Thanksgiving, I am most grateful for the gift of America.