Do you remember what you did on Independence Day in 2003?
Nope… me neither.
I’m guessing 2020 will be a year we all remember, though.
For some, it will be the Independence Day when they stayed at home with family and had a more muted celebration.
Others may attend some form of community event, but it won’t be the same as other years – there will some variation of social distancing in place, and some activities will not be possible.
It would be very easy to look at these scaled-back celebrations along what we’ve all endured for the past several months and feel great despair. And yet, I’m hopeful.
I was born in the United States and am very proud of my heritage. I am also a citizen of this planet. The two are not exclusive of each other. Perhaps that is why I have always been a wanderer – both here and abroad.
The more I’ve travelled, the more I have learned about the world. I’ve discovered that although there is good, bad, and ugly to be found everywhere, the overwhelming majority of citizens of this earth are good people who just want to live their lives with their families in peace.
In the United States, we are struggling to tame the pandemic. Our closest friends and neighbors around the world are having similar struggles.
If we look at Europeans – who were challenged sooner (and initially much more severely) than we were – they are returning to some variation of normal, where most people are able to get back to living their lives.
Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada are other nations that we share many common values with, and they are also recovering from covid-19.
Their stories give me hope. It is taking us a bit longer to get to the “new normal”, but I remain optimistic we will eventually get there too. It may take longer than many of us would like, but we will get there.
Americans need to be out in the world. Not only because it is critical for us to learn more about this big, beautiful marble we all live on, but because tourism can be a very positive force in the world.
The countries I mentioned above have advanced economies similar to ours. European countries, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will all feel the bite this summer without American tourists visiting them. However, they are rich countries, like ours, and they will be able to weather the storm.
Much of the rest of the world will not be as fortunate. Tourists from the United States and other advanced economies are critical to the economic well-being of so many middle and developing economies.
Globally, one of every ten jobs are part of the tourism industry. One in five new jobs is in the tourism sector. In the most vulnerable countries, it is more like one in two jobs.
Think about your last cruise vacation. Perhaps you were on a river ship in Western Europe. There is no doubt that France and Germany will miss your tourist dollars this year. Now think about the nationalities of the crew on board your ship, and remember that because Americans are not cruising, all those people from Eastern Europe and Asia are not able to send money home to their families.
That is the impact that tourism has on the world.
We have plenty of challenges ahead, and the borders to other countries will only be open to us once we demonstrate that we are not adding risk to their populations.
Once that opportunity is made available to me, I’ll be ready. It is taking longer than I want, and I have the same frustration everyone else does with the current situation.
But I am hopeful and optimistic we will be there sooner than we might think.
While it would be easy to attach a memory of divisive debates over face masks to this year’s Independence Day, I prefer to attach my memory of this July 4th to the anticipation of returning to the freedom to which I have become accustomed – to be able to travel all over this big beautiful planet.
Independence Day is supposed to be a celebration of freedom, and this seems even more appropriate to me this year.
Happy 4th of July – I hope you are able to spend this time with those most important to you.
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I look forward to hearing from you.
Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley
