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🎆 Am so honored to be included in “250 at 250: The Indian American Story,” a list of 250 moments, 445 people and 15 categories that shaped America. Curated by our friends at Indiaspora, which seeks “to inspire and position the Indian diaspora to be a force for good.”
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GREETINGS ON THE WEEKEND of America’s 250th celebrations. A friend GIF-wished me yesterday morning and I texted back: “Far from perfect, but a country I chose — and chose me.” His reply: “I hear you, my brother. I feel the same.”
For today’s newsletter, I wanted to do something a little different. In addition to my essay, I want to hear from YOU. Please use the Substack comments section below to post your thoughts on the birthday. I also asked for thoughts on my FB profile and got a lot of comments. Some of them are highlighted below. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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The bottomline, for me: What America can (and should) be is a question of Americans’ optimism in the face of pessimism about what America is today.
THE WORLD CUP IS ALREADY a success. The U.S.-hosted portion was always going to butt up against the horrors of the Trump administration and all of the ways he and his cronies are sowing chaos, but things have gone well for the most part. There were huge questions in the lead-up to the tournament.
Would ICE agents be harassing people at the border and at the stadium gates? Would players and officials be turned away or denied visas? Would the Iranian players get to play? Essentially, the big questions surrounding this year’s World Cup had almost nothing to do with football and almost everything to do with what America has become under Trump II.
Of course, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. The U.S. denied entry to Somalia-born referee Omar Artan, accusing him of ties to the Al-Shabab militant group. The U.S. and FIFA collaborated to make things as difficult as possible for the Iranian team to find even a moment of comfort before, after, and between matches.
America the country has not had a good run over the last decade-plus, and a month of sportswashing Trump’s horrors at home and abroad will not change that. But, as the World Cup has shown, Americans have a way of defying the lowly expectations set by our feckless political leaders. Foreigners see America the country in a largely negative light. Interestingly, foreigners' disapproval ratings of America mirror Americans’ strong and growing disapproval of Trump, his policies, and pretty much everything he represents. Trump & Co are unpopular everywhere. In a sense, the “let’s just play entertaining football and have a great time while we do it” approach to the World Cup has served as something of a reverse sportswash.
The anecdotes have been all over social and mainstream media over the last couple of weeks. Americans are fundamentally welcoming, kind, and generally nice—and the world is becoming increasingly aware of that fact every day. For me, it’s galvanized my long-held belief that we, as Americans, can change how the world sees us, even if our standing in the world is largely out of our control. It’s classic public diplomacy of the highest order, and doing it one group of football super fans at a time is a good way to start.
From the commercial grandiosity of Walmart, Bass Pro Shop, and Buc-ee’s, to the vast natural spaces of our national park system, visitors to America—especially first-timers—have been sharing stories of how much they simply did not know about day-to-day American life. From The New York Times:
Views of the United States are skewing negative, and joyous headlines about the World Cup have been interspersed with those about players and a referee being denied entry at the border. So videos depicting international visitors finding joy in the mundane have been unifying and welcome.
“All of those stories are true,” Jeroen Boersma, 30, from Harich, the Netherlands, said of the news. “But the people that do come here to the U.S., they also see the other side, which is something you cannot see if you don’t come here — and that is the beauty of American people.”
Scotland fans have reveled in Boston (and drank the city dry) and, as a group, contributed to a surge in attendance for the Miami Marlins baseball team. After a huge showing of the so-called “Tartan Army” at a Marlins game, an injured Scotland footballer was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch the next night.
Lawrence, Kansas welcomed the Algerian team and its fans with a sort of flare that “with open arms” simply cannot capture. Free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, bottomless glasses of water for free, big ice machines for the Big Gulp lovers—it’s all wondrous to those who haven’t experienced it.
This has been a case study in America at its absolute best, despite it all. Of course, the Trump horrors and corruption continue apace, and will do so for at least the next two years. But, the event has cast a different light on all of it for me, and certainly for millions around the world.
We are better than this. The people of Minnesota and Chicago showed it during the ICE invasions of the winter, the millions who have marched in the No Kings protests have shown it, the people fighting every day for the rights of those who would have them stripped at the whim of a wanna-be dictator have shown it. And, we will continue.
Andrew Lawrence wrote an excellent piece for The Guardian on just how all of this works. Sportswashing is real, make no mistake, but this World Cup seems different. It’s a proof point of just how wrong the jingoists, nativists and worse view the world.
From the piece:
Even DHS policies that have restricted travel to the US for the World Cup have ended up revealing the rich diversity already within its borders: Haitian, Congolese and Cape Verdean fans overwhelming stadiums in Philadelphia, Houston and Miami, flags flying proudly in the stands. I was minding my business in downtown Atlanta on Wednesday when I ran into a horde of Morocco fans pregaming before their match against Haiti – and judging from their numbers and the sprinkling of American accents, there was no chance all of them crossed the Atlantic for the occasion.
The same countries that see immigration as an existential threat are bearing witness to a World Cup that makes the opposite plain – underscoring not only the short-sightedness of exclusionary political movements, but the dereliction of leadership within Fifa itself. If the governing body wasn’t so busy kowtowing to authoritarian regimes and fleecing workaday fans, it could be the greatest force for global good since, well, the advent of international flight.
Amen to that.
Whether Trump likes it or not—and he absolutely does not—Americans by-and-large are rejecting Trump’s idea of what America is and can be. The bottomline, for me: What America can (and should) be is a question of Americans’ optimism in the face of pessimism about what America is today.
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According to a new poll from PBS, NPR, and Marist, the last 50 years have been a time of backsliding on American ideals as they relate back to the founding of the country. A full 83% of respondents say that the country has moved away from its founding principles, with nearly half saying it’s moved “far” away from them. But—and it’s a big, optimistic “but”—a majority also says the country’s best days are ahead of it.
This is the optimism that, in my experience, few if any countries can replicate. As shown during the World Cup thus far, Americans are keen to upholding our ideal of welcoming, helping, and sheltering those who seek such things from us. We feel this even when our country falls sometimes far short of those ideals.
As you celebrate the 250th, gather for World Cup watch parties, or just go about your everyday life, remember who you want to be. Remember that your actions are the actions of America regardless of whether those good deeds are reflected by your governing class. If we are to turn this ship around, it will not be just because of an election here or there. It will come down to our actions—small acts of care, of generosity, and of honor that rarely, if ever, make the headlines.
— Sree / Twitter | IG | LinkedIn | FB | YouTube | Spread | TikTok
51% of 2026 is already over. What will you do with the remaining 49% of the year? LMK and I’ll see you made it all the way down here.
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Curating some thoughts from my FB profile about America@250. Thank you!
Some of you shared posts you’d written:
Be sure to check out “250 at 250: The Indian American Story,” a list of 250 moments, 445 people and 15 categories that shaped America. Curated by our friends at Indiaspora, which seeks “to inspire and position the Indian diaspora to be a force for good.”
And please share your thoughts in the Substack comments section below.
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Have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree.sreenivasan1@gmail.com
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We discussed many of these issues in a special #America250 edition of The Sunday #NYTReadalong, Episode 401. Click here to watch: https://www.digimentors.group/post/ep-401-of-the-sunday-nytreadalong-america250