Poignant op-ed by a Brit in the Telegraph about Americans and their old-fashioned ways. Excerpts:
"The Americans are more old-fashioned than us, and what is equally admirable, they are not ashamed of being old-fashioned......We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man. When one strips away the distracting symbols of modernity - motor cars, skyscrapers, space rockets, microchips, junk food - one finds an essentially 18th-century country. While Europe has engaged in the headlong and frankly rather immature pursuit of novelty - how many constitutions have the nations of Europe been through in this time? - the Americans have held to the ideals enunciated more than 200 years ago by their founding fathers."
"The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.....These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for."
Our brave soldiers believe in this. Do the rest of us? Hat tip to The Anchoress.
I'm old fashioned,
But I don't mind it.
That's how I want to be
As long as you agree
To stay old fashioned with me.
(Johnny Mercer)
Posted by: Sissy Willis | August 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM