By Robert Pembroke
The return of the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1824 produced a tremendous outpouring of goodwill and gratitude from our nation. He toured all 24 states in just over 13 months. When a mayor from a little town near Boston told him, “Sir, America loves you,” Lafayette replied, “Sir, I truly love America.”
With all the partisanship, discord and outright hatred I read every day in the press and hear on television, has America become unloved? Absolutely. Not only are citizens of the world unhappy with America, I have good friends who are saying the America we now live in is a disgrace.
Both the citizens of the world and my good friends better wake up to the fact that America is still the best option for a free and democratic world. We are still the leaders of innovation, and after traveling the world, America — because of our Founding Fathers — has values that other nations lack.
just finished reading an American Enterprise Institute article published Jan. 1, 2016, titled “The Best Things About Life in America, According to Immigrants.” One answer to the survey was eye-opening: “The most important thing I liked about the U.S. is the awareness of people to fight for their rights, respecting others' views and respect for humanity. This might be one reason that it is very common for people to sue each other. While [in] other countries people will silently compromise and accept their situation as a fate, it seems, the U.S. expects everyone to be aware of what he/she deserves. This is probably the best form of freedom.” America was born to be free.
I found another gem of an immigrant tale dated June 6, at medium.com, titled “Immigrants Love America the Most.” The subject of the story came to this country in his 20s because he loved the America that he saw in movies and what it stood for. He was obsessed with John Wayne and Gary Cooper. He wanted to be some sort of Jewish sheriff.
He was super-patriotic about this country (and a diehard law-and-order Republican who loved Goldwater, Reagan, Jack Kemp and James Baker — back when the GOP actually had ideas.) “My dad would talk about America in a way, that, well, I’ve never heard anyone born here talk that way. It was a love based on what America means to the rest of the world,” he said.
When my dad was dying from cancer a few years ago, I asked him, “What do you love?” He paused. He was on the lot of morphine. Then he said, “Country. Yes. Why? Because, it gave the rest of the world hope.”
People, remember that in just 17 months we will have a new Congress and 24 months later we can change presidents if desired.
Read, read, read and then read some more. Study the diaries of John Quincy Adams. Read all of the Martin Luther King Jr. speeches. Figure out why I believe that Harry Truman was a one of the greatest presidents we have ever had. These great men all loved America.
On a recent Saturday, I lost it. I had breakfast with my good friends. The topic of Trump’s pulling out of the Paris Accord was put on the table. I had not read the Paris Accord and could not tell heads nor tails of what the press was talking about. Rather than keeping my mouth shut I jumped in. “What is wrong with Trump’s decision?” and, “How can you say that if you don’t know what’s in the Paris Accord?” I should have kept my mouth shut. Like my friends, I didn’t know the answers.
Question: Should my friends and I continue to talk about politics? My mother told me, when I was just a wee tot, never, never talk about politics or religion with anyone. I didn’t understand why until that Saturday.
Robert Pembroke is chairman of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City and characterizes himself as a small-business owner on permanent sabbatical.