Both my parents immigrated to the US after WW2 from Italy. It was very important that we embrace the American Culture and being Italian was secondary (at least initially). Bot my parents registered to vote as soon as they moved to NH from NY in 1960; my father as a Republican, my Mother as a Democrat. You can just imagine the discussion about that when my Dad came home from work that day!

Anyway over the past 5 to 10 years my Mom is becoming mor centrist and even possibly a tad conservative. She has always been a proud American and she just sent me this essay so I thought I’d share…

Once upon a time when our politicians did not tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our great country.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early '60s when DE Gaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DE Gaulle

said he wanted all US military out of

France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded,

"Does that include those who are buried here?"
DE Gaulle
did not respond.

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



When in England, at a fairly large conference,

Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury

if our plans for Iraq were just an example of

'Empire Building' by George Bush.


He answered by saying,

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for

freedom beyond our borders.

The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return

is enough to bury those that did not return."


You could have heard a pin drop........Amen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


There was a conference in France

where a number of international engineers were taking part,

including French and American.

During a break, one of the French engineers came back into

the room saying,

"Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done?

He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia

to help the tsunami victims.

What does he intend to do,

bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:

"Our carriers have three hospitals on board

that can treat several hundred people,

they are nuclear powered and can supply

emergency electrical power to shore facilities,

they have three cafeterias with

the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,

they can produce several thousand gallons of

fresh water from sea water each day,

and they carry half a dozen helicopters for

use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.

We have eleven such ships,

how many does France have?"

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A U.S. Navy Admiral

was attending a naval conference

that included Admirals from the

U.S., English, Canadian, Australian, and French Navies.

At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with

a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks,

but a French admiral suddenly complained that,

whereas Europeans learn many languages,

Americans learn only English.

He then asked,

"Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences

rather than speaking French?"

Without hesitating,

the American Admiral replied,

"Maybe it's because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans

arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak

German."

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



AND
THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...

Robert Whiting,

an elderly gentleman of 93,

arrived in Paris by plane.

At French Customs,

he took a few minutes to locate his passport in

his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?"

the customs officer asked
sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting

admitted that he had been to France
previously.

"Then you should know enough

to have your passport ready."

The American said,

"The last time I was here,

I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible"
Americans always have to show their passports on

arrival in France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look.

Then, he quietly explained,

''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on

D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country,

I couldn't find a single Frenchman
to show a passport to."

You
could have heard a pin drop.

thanks for posting. I have some unresolved issues with France myself. LOL

Thanks and I plan to copy and share the above with others.