Happy 250th Birthday America! You look great. Actually, you’re showing your age a little bit, if I’m honest. You could use a refresh, maybe a trip to the spa. Some of your airports and trains and roads look like they were built in the 60s. Possibly because they were.
Of course, most countries don’t make it to 250. The average modern state lasts 158 to 200 years before running aground. So maybe you should be proud. On the other hand, the Roman Empire made it for about 2,000 years, so maybe you’re still young?
My family showed up 60 years ago when my parents met as students at UC Berkeley. Back then, you were the land of entrepreneurship and manifest destiny and opportunity. It was a no-brainer for them to stay here to build a life. Taiwan, where they were from, was largely farms back then. Heck, my father even grew up on a peanut farm. They came to you for a better path.
And it worked! You provided a place to build a life. The Dream you offered was real, for them and for their kids. They bought a house for about $35,000 in 1974, the house they took me home to from the hospital. They had a small house and a yellow Chevrolet and pretty soon two kids running around. My Dad went fishing and shared the catch with neighbors if it was particularly bountiful.
That’s how I grew up. I was told to get good grades and work hard, and if I did, I too would have the chance to live a good life here. To be an American. I grew up on Back to the Future, The Karate Kid, Casey Kasem’s Top 40, the Mets, all of it. I absorbed the culture like a sponge, went to school, and got a good job. I left that job to have all sorts of adventures, and they worked out eventually. I met Evelyn, got married, and have two young sons now. Americans.
Somehow though, all of it got much more difficult than when I grew up. The house my parents bought back in 1974 costs 10 times as much today. The public school system that Evelyn grew up in is showing cracks. All of the value seems to be flowing up to the cloud. Our kids are disappearing into screens. And our anger and frustration doesn’t result in more houses or better schools or more value – it just begets more anger and frustration.
We are hosting a lot of people right now for the World Cup. Many are seeing you for the first time. They are digging you – your ranch dressing and Costcos and giant gas stations. Air conditioning everywhere. We have so much promise. In real life, and not through the funhouse mirrors of the screens.
You are still awesome. Massive. Abundant. Beautiful. It must be remembered and said as often as possible.
Still, there is a sense that you’re a little bit tired. But how can you be – you have another 1,750 years to go to beat the Roman record! So much room to run.
Maybe you seem this way because we’re not having as many kids. Kids keep you young. The best are twenty-something year olds who are filled with optimism. They seem less optimistic today, less interested in each other and falling in love. It’s the screens again.
As we get older, you seem older. Or maybe again it’s just the roads and trains and airports and if we made them all new you would be too. Or maybe you just need a new and better, more responsive political system. The current one has been in place for 160 years and could desperately use a revamp. It seems overdue. Can we get you an appointment?
Anyway, Happy 250th Birthday. We love you. Here’s a gift certificate for a new data center. You’ll love them, we’re building them all over you.
