I was watching the Republican National Convention tonight and it reminded me that I wrote this like (4) years ago. It’s clearly not the 4th of July, but I felt like it was pertinent:
Fourth of July -
“As many of you know, I went travelling this year. And as I’ve always said, you will never truly know yourself until you see how other people live. I saw many people and I was lucky enough to witness a day in their life.
I saw dirty, naked babies in Cambodia, living in pure squalor. I stepped over genocide victims’ teeth and skulls and jaw bones. I ate dinner at a cafes while limbless land mine victims begged me for change.
I often drunkenly tip-toed into my hotel in China at 3 A.M., trying my best not to wake up the (5) girls that were sleeping at the front desk. They slept there because they worked 14 hour days, 28 days a month and it was easier to just stay at work than to go home at night. I stood in utter jaw-dropping awe when the front-desk girl at my hostel said that she had never been out of the city we were in. She also hadn’t visited any of the landmarks I was there to enjoy. She said that she didn’t have the time or money for such luxuries.
I can carry on and on about the seemingly horrible conditions that these beautiful people are living in, but I won’t. I’m not going to refrain from elaboration in the sake of brevity, but because it simply isn’t the most interesting part. The interesting part is that almost everyone I met was overwhelming kind, and generous and happy. Yes, they were dirty, and poor, but were also perpetually smiling from ear to ear.
The biggest lesson that I learned is that, regardless of our (still) dominant GDP, our unprecedented quality of life, our undeniable excess and creature comforts, we still don’t have it all figured out. We, as Americans, are hard-wired from birth to believe that this is the greatest country in the world. I fear that it will be this brand of short-sighted, elitist, ethnocentricity that will eventually hamstring us and manifest as the root cause of our impending mediocrity.
This country is not amazing because we are better. Actually it’s the converse. We are better because we are comprised of theys. We are from everywhere. We are everyone. That is our strength.
When you celebrate our independence today, remember how nice it is to be an American. But also remember that, as much as we would like to think it, we don’t have it all figured out. We aren’t the best at everything! Yes, we are amazing. Yes, we are powerful and creative and vibrant. But we are also very often over-indulgent and undeniably over-worked and often times, down right over-rated.
So don’t celebrate how awesome we are today. I suggest you celebrate your new-found dedication to continuing our awesomeness. Be thankful that you are here, but don’t forget that the rest of the world is watching us and that they are amazing too.”