Mar 8, 2018 2 min read

America is already great

I was given a reminder of what America really is while having breakfast recently at the Airport Restaurant in Waynesburg.

We were seated at a table beneath a large American flag on the wall, watching the other diners enjoy their food. At one table were five well-behaved young guys, maybe high school athletes, eating heavily and happily. At a double table, 10 senior citizens chattered and joked noisily before abruptly joining hands to offer grace before resuming their conversation. A family of four dined quietly nearby. Their lively son in a high chair dropped his pacifer, which rolled under another diner’s chair.

An unsmiling, serious-looking large man seated at another table with his wife and teenage daughter stood, lumbered slowly around their table and squatted, reaching under the chair for the pacifer. He handed it to the little boy’s mom, who thanked him. He returned to his table, and we made eye contact. I gave him a grin and thumbs up, and he nodded, smiling slightly.

As we sat beneath that big flag, I thought: “This is the America I know. It doesn’t need to be made great again. It already is.”

Fred Schroyer

Waynesburg