| By Vern Wuensche Americans are good. Look at the evidence. We stand in line patiently at the grocery store or at the airport without trying to break in line. We generally return shopping carts after shopping. We dump our trash automatically when we go to a fast-food restaurant. We hold open doors for others. We say excuse me and thank you. We vote We are involved in our community, often putting in long hours with of course no pay. We let cars in traffic ahead of us. In Houston, I could sit in my car facing stopped traffic in a four-lane service road, trying to get to the inside lane and be able to cross simply by pointing and asking. Americans do like to be asked. We Americans contribute half a trillion dollars to charity. Tunnels of Towers and Wounded Warrior are among the best of many great charities that use our donations wisely. We also volunteer many hours at charities and churches. We go to church regularly. If this were used as a measure of goodness, Republicans are better than Democrats. Pew Research shows that 41% of Republicans attend church at least once per month, compared with 27% for Democrats. Weekly attendance surveys mirror this. And objective news confirms Democrats’ lack of goodness by showing their oftentimes anti-American beliefs and their greater tendency toward violence. And every day, the news and social media show instances of Americans risking their lives to help fellow Americans who often are strangers to them. And in rural America, there is goodness in spades. In the small town of McDade, Texas, where I now live, everyone waves to everyone–stranger or not. A friend there who is married to a husband from a large city says she is teaching him to at least do a one-finger wave. Many at least do a two-finger wave, but most do even more. None of this is required of anyone. But Americans do it all willingly because they are good. And even when there are rules without enforcement, Americans still follow traffic rules. Even though we are all annoyed when there is a traffic backup due to an accident. But given the hundreds of thousands of all kinds of vehicles on our cities’ streets every day, it is quite remarkable how seldom this happens. Most understand that the rules keep us safe and benefit us all. A friend of mine who was in the oil business and had traveled in his car all over the world told me that, at one point, when he was stuck in traffic on Houston’s Katy Freeway, he was still grateful to be in America, where, unlike in many other countries, drivers followed basic traffic rules. Yet the mainstream media gives a warped view of America. It focuses 90% of its coverage on 10% of the problems, including 2% of criminals who commit 90% of the crime. Thankfully, the good people on cable news, Fox, and on X and some other social media day by day diminish their influence. America is celebrating 250 years of freedom this year, a unique achievement in the history of the world. This would never have happened if Americans were not good people. Vern Wuensche vern@voteforvern.com http://www.voteforvern.com Vern Wuensche’s opinion pieces have appeared in USA Today and other newspapers. He is a small town Texas farm boy with an MBA and CPA who founded and continuously ran Houston’s oldest residential construction company for forty-three years. He is a lifelong active Republican, a Christian, a veteran, and an early marathoner who ran for President in 2008 and 2012. | 
