If you don’t follow and read National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke, I’d highly recommend it. He offers very insightful and engaging analysis on political events and subjects – here’s a great sample from a Thanksgiving meditation he gave on Twitter yesterday:
It’s Thanksgiving—so I want to repost this excerpt from an NR cover story I wrote about falling in love with America. pic.twitter.com/ZXK0osYqhK
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
My politics were once different, but I always loved America. I had an Apollo 11 lunchbox, and any mention of the place made me smile.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I understand the regional rivalries. But I can’t indulge in them. I love the whole country: New York, the West, California, the South.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I am incredibly thankful that I finally got here—that NR took a chance on someone who had never written so much as a newspaper piece before.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I’m thankful for my wife. I met her when I was living under my desk, sans apartment. She came in one morning and I was there stupidly early.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
“Why didn’t you call me,” she asked. “Because I don’t know who you are,” I suggested, reasonably. She bought me a coffee and a croissant.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
That’s America. It’s easy for those who were born here not to realize just how friendly and welcoming the people are. I’m thankful for that.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I’m thankful for the friends I have made here. It’s tough moving country. You don’t have the stuff you’ve spent a lifetime building up.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
You don’t have a bank account, any credit rating at all (they don’t transfer), any money, a drivers license, a credit card, a doctor.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
So you rely on those you meet. And those I met were Americans. Warm, open, friendly, welcoming, supportive, kind, charitable Americans.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
One of my best friends here is a Sri Lankan immigrant. One of my favorite memories is being in Austin, TX with him. We got into a cab . . .
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
. . . and the driver is from the Indian subcontinent—I forget where. And the two of them start chatting about how much they love America.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
Eventually, I join in, too. And our friend from Minnesota says “This is fascinating. I forget sometimes, being from here.” It’s easy to do.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I came from England, not Rwanda or a communist hellhole. But I still get it. Sometimes, I look at my Green Card and I can’t believe it.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
To this day, I am yet to talk to a cab driver in New York City who says he wishes he were somewhere else. And why would he?
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
So, today, this immigrant is thankful to be living in this astonishing country and to those who recognize it for what it is—and has to be.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
A world without America is not a world worth living in. There it is. Happy Thanksgiving.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 27, 2014
I have a feeling most Americans would have no problem welcoming an immigrant that has such thoughts and feelings about our blessed land.