We originally published this last year for Thanksgiving, and I thought it was so good that I’m reposting it for your pleasure.
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.
Since last year, Charles is still in the process of becoming an American citizen, and has married a American gal.