We dodged once again, the latest hurricane Nate. I manage properties on the Gulf Coast so I prepare. My helper Carlos is a painter by trade. He helped me secure outdoor furnishings, haul in breakables and put it all back, post storms. It’s been a busy season. So busy, he said that all the checks totaling thousands that I gave him from my property owners, he’s not had a chance to deposit.

His sister has a housekeeping team that I use, one of several. One of 13 children, she told me she has no sympathy for illegals. She has been legal in this country for decades, owns property and her children are in college, one studying to be a lawyer. One of Carlos’s daughters is the secretary for our local St. Rita’s Catholic Church. The example of the American Dream. No taking a knee, no victims here.

Their elderly father has throat cancer. They take turns caring for him. He still drives. He loves Mexico. He’s having panic attacks, realizing his independence and self-reliance is slipping away. He lost his wife. My friend Carlos that helped me secure my properties lost his wife. Laurajia his sister, who runs the housekeeping team’s daughter-in-law in her 30’s, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I sponsored her – fundraisers. They don’t sit out a challenge. They meet it head on as a family and community. They are the best this country has to offer and they inspire me.

My husband came home frustrated because an employee failed to show for work yet again on a Monday. Meth, drunkenness, and regular incarcerations are a part of life for the white population here in certain parts of Northwest Florida. The landscaping trade, and all other building trades have the same problem, quality help. Decent salary, short work week, new company vehicle doesn’t matter. What is the difference between the mindsets and cultures here? 

Today is Columbus Day. Statues of Columbus were defaced, like other historical figures in American history over the last year. Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Robert E. Lee, Columbus, all important parts of the American history, defaced, torn down, their stories silenced on campuses across the country.

My Hispanic friends and others – some are dealing with cancer, divorce, difficult life situations, yet thankful for the American dream and an opportunity to provide for their families, access to decent hospitals and healthcare, work twelve hour days, supported by family, friends.

Another young Hispanic woman I know works six-seven days a week. She has two small children. When she told me she caught her husband possibly cheating, and texting a young 16 year old girl in Mexico, I felt sorry for her. Pornography, attacks on marriage and family know no race, culture or boundaries. She said don’t you feel sorry for me! I have my job, I make my own money, I have a house, my children, I don’t need anything else. The American dream. She knows both poverty and plenty, opportunity, freedom. They are working things out – a young culture under assault by both trash and technology.

My husband and his brother helped their sister over the weekend. She is a home health care nurse. She found a patient living in squalor, sick and wheelchair bound, in a roach infested broken-down trailer. She called in the troops, and got that woman into an assisted living facility. We and others donated furniture, household goods and time. Her extremely overweight, lazy pathetic son didn’t lift a finger all weekend, nor did his extremely overweight baby-mama, while their mother was cared for by the nursing staff and the home healthcare facility. The best of America and the worst.

While others are sitting at home waiting for a handout, hollering White Supremacist or racist, wearing an invisible victim sign on their backs, hiding behind black kerchiefs and carrying Antifascist signs, silencing free speech while enrolled in America’s best schools, there are those that love all that America offers. They have little time for tweets, complaining about Trump, selfies or Facebook, they have a life to live and people to love. They are the best our country has to offer.