Hans Lauzen

After being away from home on a deployment with the Naval Special Warfare this last year, I had an opportunity to reflect on what I love about America as I landed back in the States. It's not the beautiful places of America, although we've got them—Big Sur along the California coast, the extraterrestrial rock formations in the Utah deserts, the pristine turquoise waters of the Gulf Coast, and the hazy expanses of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's not the massive skyscrapers and the unparalleled feats of engineering that lead to an energy in the great American cities like New York and Chicago. It's not even the ease of life created by the American internet that makes anything possible...within about 12 hours. What's great about America is that it's full of Americans who still have an undeniable connection, even 250 years later, to our Founding Fathers and our Charters of Freedom.

First, Americans have and always will have a certain healthy distrust of their own government. When the Sons of Liberty threw tea into Boston Harbor, it wasn't because the Intolerable Acts were truly insufferable, unreasonable, or even that relatively expensive. After all, the British government needed a way to pay for expenses via their colonies. It was because those Americans demanded representation and accountability from their leaders. Today, the same healthy distrust of our government creates loud, often angry, but necessary political discourse that ultimately creates checks and balances on our very own representatives.

Secondly, we have an unfettered belief in ourselves that is reflected in bravery and confidence. Without a doubt, the Founding Fathers understood the task they were undertaking as they signed the Declaration of Independence, mounted a Continental Army to oppose the strongest military on Earth, and fought in swamps, mountains, and plains with volunteer Minutemen for nearly a decade. Today, that scrappy upstart is the world's leading power that still has that "chip on its shoulder" and truly believes that the American way of life must be shared across the globe. Although the mission of America is not as simple as liberty against tyrants as it was in the 18th century, the mission today includes an optimistic belief that Americans can and should do it all.

Thirdly, Americans have a zest for life and adventure that's on display throughout different generations. That zest can be seen in the patriot who grabbed his Brown Bess to defend Lexington, the frontiersman commissioned to explore uncharted land, the cowboy who rode west into unfamiliar territory, the teenage GI sent across Normandy Beach, or the astronaut launched to explore the moon. The American Spirit was alive within those men and women then...and is still alive today when we send our nation's best and brightest overseas to dangerous places to defend American interests abroad.

But most importantly, what's special about America is that Americans believe we have created and continue to refine our guiding principles of the great experiment that was launched in 1776. The ability to create Constitutional amendments was written into our Charters of Freedom to ensure that America reflects its people in their eras; twenty-seven times the American people, through their elected representatives, have said that the rules of this nation need to change. And, even today, in a time full of anger, discontentment, and hostility, the same principles and ability to change are left up to the American people to seek those necessary changes. My hope is that we continue to demand a government that reflects our principles, that we continue to believe in ourselves, and that we always seek adventure to ensure that the noble experiment of America lasts another 250 years.