I took my son John to the Patriotic Fireworks Music Spectacular at the Cleveland Indian's game last night - which was awesome. There was a large group of Australian youth baseball players and their parents and coaches in attendance who were in town for a tournament. One parent noted, "You Yanks are a special breed. No one loves your country or flag like you do. I think its great!" I said in return, "Yes sir, we do. Yet this is what its all about." And I gestured to the 25,000 parents and children in attendance, all cheering what really is mediocre baseball, eating waterlogged hot dogs, sharing a simple and happy moment in time and in doing so, showing what America is all about.
I think we over-complicate things at times when discussing the American People. Last night was a perfect example of how simple we really are as a nationality. The pervasive stream of negative media content would make it seem like we area nation of perverts, miscreants, criminals and fools - and to a certain extent I suppose we are - but not in balance. Not as a whole. What we saw last night was the slightly goofy, well-intentioned and laughable core of our people stripped clean. It takes that blend of high and low, "book smart" and street raised, wonderous and cynical - that's the "American People".
I just had the pleasure of spending an evening with 25,000 of them, and I hope to do the same again soon.
Happy 4th everyone!
