Welcome Home!

“Welcome home!” One of the sweetest things said to me while coming through immigration at the airport. The best part was the guy inspecting my passport meant it and I believed him firmly without a doubt.

I have always been raised to appreciate and understand that being born in the United States of America is one of the greatest gifts on earth. That one little fact gives me rights and freedoms that so many other people around the world only dream of. I won’t go on with all of the details... there are too many to list… freedom of speech, freedom of religion…with these freedom’s I’m part of a club, a family, a group of people that understand each other (well most of the time) .

On our way home to America for our Christmas holiday, we took the train from Eindhoven to the Schiphol airport. The guy sitting next to me reeked of pot. It was very overwhelming. Between his excessive chatting, I kept wondering what the scientist thought about second hand pot smoke. What was the risk of getting high from this and how many brain cells was I killing just to have a seat on the train? But as he explained that he spoke 6 different languages and grew pot in his backyard a little thought was running through my head… I need a brownie! He started asking me political questions. Questions I was afraid to answer. Questions like… What were we (The Americans) thinking sending all of those boys to war? What did I think the President was thinking? I told him personally; because I’m the only one I can speak for…. Sending troops into war or not.. That decision has to be made by the man sitting in the chair. He’s the one that has to look at all of the evidence that is presented to him and then decide. One of the great things about being American is being able to vote for our leaders. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose… but once in office, we should support the man in the chair. He also asked if I thought the President knew things we (the people) did not know about. I told him absolutely! Even though we have the press that thinks we need to know every little detail of everything, some things are better kept quiet until it’s time to reveal. How else would he (and our troops) be able to protect us? We may not always agree with everything that is done, but we need to trust that they are trying to protect us. Then, if we do not like what the President has chosen to do, we can vote his @$$ out of office.

We the people are a beautiful country that will always be a work in progress and always striving to be better. I’m grateful to the chatty Dutch man on the train who was curious to ask this American girl’s opinion about our wonderful nation.