Everyone needs a cheerleader. I know I do. Nothing gets me more excited than someone saying something nice.
Every once in a while someone will say something nice and I turn into the world’s biggest golden retriever.
“Thank you for saying that,” I’ll say. “You just made my day.”
If I had a tail, it would be wagging 90 mph.
Compliments are the currency of kindness.
I don’t know why many people are so stingy with them. After all, compliments are free.
I don’t want to sound like SpongeBob SquarePants, who believes that every day is the best ever – although, when you think about it, every day really is the best.
All I mean is if someone says or does something above and beyond, I give him or her a few good words.
What brings this to mind is the Fourth of July, the birthday of the Good Old U.S. of A. I want to give our one nation, under God, indivisible and with liberty and justice for all, a compliment.
First, as someone who has enjoyed the many opportunities that freedom has provided, I am forever grateful. Try being a journalist in Russia, where they are randomly tossed in jail. Or how about China, where they just disappear? Or a multitude of other nations?
Dissent or criticism is not tolerated.
With this being an election year, the rhetoric and hyperbole are in overdrive.
One Party: We do everything right and the other party is horrible.
The Second Party: No, we do everything right and the other party is even more horrible.
The People: Ugh. Please pass the earplugs.
This is nothing new. Not even George Washington was unanimously elected.
Because of the freedoms it offers everyone, our nation, since its founding, has been under siege from within and outside its borders. In 1814, the British army even set fire to the U.S. Capitol and the White House, then called the presidential mansion.
That act was just one of many attacks, domestic and foreign, that our nation has endured. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are two others that immediately come to mind.
Through them all, we as a nation have emerged stronger and more deeply dedicated to the notion that freedom is worth the price. We have sent our sons and daughters into harm’s way to secure that freedom and we have no intention of giving it up. Ever.
Time after time, foreign powers have made the mistake of assuming the cacophony of many disparate voices signaled weakness or the lack of resolve.
They have been shown to be wrong every time. When attacked, Americans have laid down their differences and picked up arms to defend the ideals we all hold dearly. And, just for the record, anyone who doubts that is in for a big surprise.
We all need to be a cheerleader for our great nation. We need to tell the rest of the world that, as Americans, we love and appreciate our nation above all others, one that is of the people, by the people and for the people.
Carl Sampson is a freelance writer and editor and has been a professional journalist for 50 years. He lives in Stayton.
