Telling America’s Story to the World

Today I join company with a number of American patriots and citizens as a guest contributor to the podcast SoftPower/FulStories hosted by Christopher Wurst.

He’s built an inspiring collection that reaches deeply and personally into what it means to serve the United States as diplomats, development workers, Peace Corps Volunteers, travelers, writers, and all forms of storytellers.

These are the people who, in word and deed, tell America’s story to the world.

In Episode 10, I share the story of my Connecticut hometown and my earliest memory celebrating the 1976 U.S. bicentennial. I recognize my worst early professional failure as a “journalist,” the Peace Corps experience that gave me courage to rise above it, and how this ultimately led to my role sharing the American story abroad.

And not just me, but hundreds of thousands of others like myself who dedicated our lives to telling that story through their daily example.

One overarching takeaway is that in sharing America’s story, in engaging foreign populations on very close and personal terms, we make America stronger.

Needless to say, anything that makes America stronger makes America safer. The next correct assertion is that when we are safer and stronger, America is by definition more prosperous.

Not that I believe we do this for “prosperity” as commonly understood. Rather, I prefer to measure our prosperity in relation to the resources we share, not the treasure we horde.

I hope you’ll listen to my episode. In it, we see that the resources we provide, the libraries we build, the programs we host abroad, showcase America at its best. As Wurst puts it so eloquently: even a library card can become a talisman of hope.

Make sure you visit the SP/FS homepage at Youtube for other episodes, show notes, and photos from my service.

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