On a recent trip I had to good fortune to be seated with three foreign-born executives, two who make their living in the United States and another who hopes to leave the European banking world to work here. Each was from a different country, countries we read about almost daily, but that remain for many of us an enigma if not a mystery: Pakistan, India and Turkey. As the evening unfolded, our conversation moved into the potentially touchy territory of how the United States is perceived in developing countries and in rapidly emerging economies. Each person was quick to differentiate their views on specific U.S foreign policies from their affection for American people and, interestingly, from what our country offered them and continues to offer the rest of the world. One line “It is not who you are it is what you represent” crystallized for me that America remains the beacon of light for the rest of the world. It was spoken by a woman who, while she loves her country, has applied for American citizenship. She noted proudly how in the United States she can hold on to her cultural heritage (much in the same way that my immigrant grandparents did) but fully participate in commerce, community and policy. She is a very senior executive and she openly practices her Muslim faith at work. She encounters no ill will or discrimination. Another, the CFO of a major international financial institution, noted to me that in the United States “education equals equality." Here, he said, it isn’t about where you are born or the socio-educational status of your parents, it is about the quality of your brain and your innate desire to get ahead that propels your success. Not so in his country. The third member of our dinner circle was an aerospace engineer. He came to this country to work, saw a market niche, started his own small business and now heads a globally recognized company. His life, he pointed out, would have taken a very different path had he not come to the United States to work. Three very different people, all of whom love their native countries, but three people for whom America embodies the spirit captured in the lady that stands in New York Harbor.

I tell this story to remind all of us that, having come through this past brutal and sometimes distasteful political season, we cannot allow ourselves to forget that the United States stands, in the words of President Kennedy, to all of those seeking a better life “as watchmen on the walls of freedom” and that Vermont still remains that place described by Calvin Coolidge: “…If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.” We are better than our dialogue, better than our political ads, and better than our seemingly feckless policy. Just ask those who yearn to come here.

Thanks. Your comments are always welcome.