Daniel Foucachon (@foucachon)

I grew up in three countries and two continents. 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇫🇷 I have traveled to many more. I am sometimes asked why I chose to raise my family in America instead of France, given that I have the unique choice of both. There is no parallel to the USA when it comes to the most important parts of life. The food is better and the history richer in France. The mountains and cities and monuments of France and Switzerland cannot be rivaled. But America is free. America is brave. And America is Christian. Christian: We are a Christian nation. Revisionists have attempted to recast America as secular, but every minute I spend in the primary sources that shaped our country and the men who founded it is a reminder of the Christian source of it all, inherited through England, Medieval Europe, Christian Rome, and classical Rome and Greece before that. We are a young nation with ancient roots, the inheritors of Christendom. Brave: That Roman ideal of Pietas that compelled Aeneas to flee his homeland of Troy (read Europe) and cross the seas (ocean) and found Rome (America) is the same ideal that became American Bravery. We fight for a homeland: a place we call home. But we also fight and love the idea of America as the ancient Romans fought for the idea of Rome. We love our land and our Constitution (fairly unique combination among nations). We love our States and our Union. We love our homes and land we call our own, and the flag that represents “We the People” as a whole. We are still the people who asks not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. It may seem this virtue, this bravery, this pietas is going extinct, but that pessimism is constantly contradicted by selfless brave Americans. Free: America is still the freest nation on earth. It is a freedom that must constantly be fought for. It’s worth dying for. It’s worth living for. And the pessimist will point to many eroding freedoms, a critique I grant and consider as a to-do list to address. But all one has to do is live in another country to realize how free and prosperous this nation is. We don’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. We can lose it. How to we maintain it? 1. Gratitude. We have to acknowledge what we have with thanksgiving first before we even know what we are defending and fighting for. Thank God for it. Thank a veteran. I love when vets wear baseball caps representing their service. As often as I can, I stop and thank them, all year long. 2. Knowledge. Understand what we have. Learn civics (http://civilrealm.com if you need a primer). Read the American and European history (don’t skip Roman history: it is OUR history). 3. Bravery. What does pietas mean? It means to do your duty with joy and steadfastness. Go to church. Love God. Get married. Have as many children as you can raise to love God. Own dirt. Honor your parents. Sing regularly. Fill your home with books, and especially The Book. And especially on Memorial Day, fly the flag of the nation you call home. May God bless America, and shed His grace on her. Happy Memorial Day