Musings>American Exceptionalism

People talk about this, on the one hand, as if all Americans are exceptional, and on the other hand, as if NO Americans are exceptional. Neither is true.

To me, American Exceptionalism means that projects and dreams that are impossible in other countries are entirely doable here, providing the dreamer has some drive and creativity. Sometimes the dreamer is a native-born American citizen, but often they are immigrants, who understood far more keenly the opportunity that awaits in America for those who dare to seek it. I offer seven examples of this, but there are many. The people who created Hewlett Packard, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay....how can they be anything other than exceptional?

• Perhaps the greatest of them all is Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and helped create PayPal, then Tesla, then SpaceX and bought Twitter and turned it into X. Talk about making dreams come true!
• J.C. Nichols -- He was a developer back in the Great Depression who created the most elegant shopping district in the U.S. -- The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO. Not an enclosed mall, but an open shopping district comprising two or three blocks square, and full of Spanish-design architecture, statuary, fountains and tilework. In the beginning, it was full of unique stores, but those have given way to the chain stuff you can find in any mall. But it's still a beautiful place to stroll, and at Christmas, it's magical.
• Steamboat Arabia Museum-- In 1856, the Steamboat Arabia sank in the Missouri River near Kansas City. Everybody got off safe except a mule. Around 1900, somebody tried to salvage it because of a rumor that there was Tennessee whisky on board. It's unclear whether they found any, but it kept the story alive longer than would have been normal. In the 1970s, a couple of local business families decided to find it and salvage it. They leased a wheat field next to the river during winter and had to be out by spring planting. They dug down 50 feet and had to have pumps going all the time because the water table was so high being next to the river. They found the boat, including the mule and the tree trunk that holed the hull and caused it to sink. They salvaged the hull with the tree, the boiler and the cargo, which was billed as being like an 1850s Wal-Mart. Tools, trade goods, weapons, clothing, patent medicines, canned foods, all kinds of stuff, preserved because of the silt that covered it over. And made it into a museum. Who, anywhere, could do that?
• Harry Truman's haberdasher -- This is purely from memory, but long ago, there was a story about this man, who had emigrated from a Central European country. He said that where he came from, he could never have found himself making clothes for the highest official in his land. In caste systems, which include ones with nobility, that role is held open for someone special, and ordinary folks need not apply.
• Jorge Perez -- This man was the son of Cuban exiles living in Argentina, and he emigrated to the U.S. where he created a billion-dollar real estate empire.
• Robert Gumbiner -- Interestingly, I got this man confused with Mr. Perez. I remember reading about the real estate empire and that he had created the Museum of Latin American Art, but when I googled these things, I found that Mr. Gumbiner did that, along with a couple of other surprising accomplishments.
• And one more, from autumn 2024. Hurricane Helene ravaged the Southeast and cut off a number of communities from outside help. FEMA did well in other places, but flunked here. First a veteran and helicopter pilot called on his copter pilot buddies and they started airlifting supplies to places FEMA had missed. Then a month later, some coal miners bulldozed a three-mile road to Chimney Rock, WVA, which was cut off and looked to be cut off for months. They didn't apply for permits. They just did it, and could still be prosecuted, but it solved the problem. https://nypost.com/2024/10/27/us-news/west-va-boys-build-road-so-helene-victims-can-go-home/

So, what's it going to be? Are you going to sit back and whine about how unfair life is (and it is!), or stand up and demolish every obstacle that stands between you and your goal? That's in you, if you dare! --- Randy Schuyler