Through Their Eyes

What the World Cup visitors are seeing that some of us have forgotten

I have been walking around New York City this past week and something has felt different.

The jerseys are everywhere. Brazil. France. Mexico. Argentina. Panama. England and Germany. People from every corner of the world filling our streets, our restaurants, our subways — looking around with wide eyes and enormous smiles. The World Cup has come to America and with it has come something I did not expect.

A reminder of how extraordinary this country actually is.

I stopped and talked to a few visitors this week. They love New York. They love America. And what struck me was not just their enthusiasm for the soccer — it was their enthusiasm for us. For our country. For what they found here versus what they were told they would find.

On social media the videos are everywhere and they are genuinely moving. Visitors shocked by the size of our portions. Losing their minds over ranch dressing. Amazed by the ice in every drink. Marveling at the size of our homes, our roads, our everything. Laughing and shaking their heads and saying things like — nobody told us it was like this. We were lied to. I cannot wait to come back.

And underneath all the fun and the food and the laughter, something more serious keeps coming through. People who came here expecting one thing and found something completely different. People saying this is a special place. That you can do anything here. That the opportunity here is real and unlike anything they have at home.

Watching it has been both humbling and inspiring. Humbling because so many of us who were born here have forgotten what we have. Inspiring because sometimes it takes a stranger falling in love with something you have always had to make you see it clearly again.

What they are seeing

These visitors did not come here knowing they would love it. Many of them came having been told — by their media, by their schools, by their culture — that America was something else entirely. Arrogant. Dangerous. Unwelcoming. A country in decline.

And then they got here.

And they found friendly people who held doors open and helped them read subway maps and cheered for their teams even when playing against us. They found a country so big and so varied and so alive that it defied every preconception they arrived with. They found what Americans who love this country have always known — that this place is genuinely special. Not perfect. But special in a way that is hard to put into words until you see it through the eyes of someone experiencing it for the first time.

That is the truth that the people who built this country — who fought for it, who died for it, who swore allegiance to it — understood deeply. America is worth loving. America is worth defending. And America is worth passing on to the next generation intact.

And then there is this

While visitors from around the world were walking our streets and falling in love with this country, something else was happening here in New York.

Darializa Avila Chevalier won the Democratic primary for New York's 13th Congressional District. She will in all likelihood be heading to Congress to represent the people of Manhattan.

She co-founded a group at Columbia University called Columbia University Apartheid Divest. That group posted the following statement: "We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

And in a since-deleted social media post, when she was standing near an American flag and needed something to wipe her hands on, she wrote: "I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me."

I want to let that sit for a moment.

The flag that represents every man and woman who ever put on a uniform and left their family to defend this country. The flag that is draped over the coffins of our fallen. The flag that hangs in the windows of Gold Star families. The flag that visitors from dozens of countries walked past this week with admiration and respect.

She wiped her hands on it. And then deleted the post when she thought it might cost her something.

It did not cost her enough. She won anyway.

What the flag actually means

Our founders did not fight for a piece of fabric. They fought for what it represents. The idea that free people can govern themselves. That rights come from God and not from government. That every individual has dignity and the freedom to build a life on their own terms.

That flag is the symbol of all of it. Of every battle fought and every life given and every generation that chose to hand this country forward rather than let it fall apart on their watch.

Our military serves under that flag today. Men and women who left their families and their comfort and their safety to defend what it stands for. They do not get to wipe their hands on it. They fold it with ceremony. They carry it with reverence. They present it to the families of those who gave everything beneath it.

And we are about to send someone to Congress who used it as a napkin.

This is not a left or right issue

I want to be clear about something. I am not asking everyone to agree with my politics. I never have.

But I am asking every American — Democrat, Republican, independent, whatever you are — to ask yourself one question. Is this who we want representing us? Someone who publicly stated she wants to eradicate the civilization this country was built on? Someone who used the flag as a napkin and deleted the post when she thought people might notice?

The visitors walking our streets this week would not understand it. The people who traveled thousands of miles to see this country and came away saying they were lied to about how great it is — they would not understand how we could hand a seat of power to someone who holds it in contempt.

If you are given the privilege of leading this country and you cannot pledge your allegiance to it — you have no business being here.

That is not a partisan statement. That is the minimum standard of anyone who asks to serve.

What I took away from this week

I am going to hold onto what I saw this week on the streets of New York. The jerseys and the smiles and the wonder in people's eyes. The visitors who came here told one story and found another. The ones who said this is a special place. That you can do anything here.

They are right. You can. That is still true. That is worth protecting.

Our founders knew it. Our military knows it. And deep down, most Americans know it too — even the ones who have gotten so used to it that they stopped noticing.

The World Cup will end. The visitors will go home. But what they found here will stay with them. And what we do with this country — who we elect, what we allow, what we refuse to accept — will determine whether the next generation of visitors finds the same thing.

I intend to make sure they do.

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With faith and conviction,
— Christine
The Lion & The Cross

What have you seen or heard from World Cup visitors that made you proud to be an American? Drop it in the comments. And if this resonated with you, please share it. Someone in your life needs to read this today.

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