Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Andrew Cuomo Doesn't See America's Greatness Because He Doesn't Know Where to Look
Townhall.com ^ | August 21, 2018 | Salena Zito

Posted on 08/21/2018 8:05:09 AM PDT by Kaslin

NICKELSVILLE, Va. -- Somewhere between Nickelsville and Bear Wallow Hollow along Virginia state Route 71, the remains of a redbrick home smolder on the hillside overlooking the single-lane road. Several volunteer firemen sit drinking water nearby. It's over 90 degrees out. The sun and heat are punishing, exaggerating the heaviness of their efforts.

None of these men will get a paycheck for risking their health, and possibly their lives. But that's OK; that's not why they do it.

An elderly gentleman stands outside of his vehicle along Route 11 West, the Virginia-Tennessee byway made infamous in the 1958 movie "Thunder Road" about moonshine running. He's not far from a service station. Two young men pull over and offer their help. Minutes later, he is steering and they are pushing. He makes it to the station. They walk back toward their white service van with two sandwiches in hand he bought them at the lunch counter inside the station.

A new waitress at a Chattanooga diner drops her tray full of ribs, macaroni and cheese and wings just as she is about to deliver it to a table filled with family members from out of town. Half of it lands on the father of the family, staining his white shirt and tangling gooey macaroni and cheese in his hair. She is filled with apologies and tears. They handle it with grace. When they leave -- after they finally have their dinner -- they refuse an offer for complimentary dinner and leave her a generous tip.

None of these are extraordinary moments. In fact, they are really quite ordinary things that happen every day in this country. They are the tiny measures of character, which is best measured in such granular increments. Character is the mosaic of tiny acts, rather than a large, bold mural making an obvious statement.

Speaking at a bill-signing ceremony last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said: "We're not going to make America great again. It was never that great," a line that caused some of those in attendance to gasp and others, oddly, to cheer before he continued.

It was a line meant to take on his nemesis, President Trump, and Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" slogan. But it keeps with the notion that some in politics truly believe America is not all that great.

Perhaps they don't know what great means.

Or worse yet, what America means.

Great is an aspiration -- a higher elevation to which you constantly try to take yourself and your countrymen.

And that greatness resides in our people. It's visible in the volunteer firefighters, the good Samaritans, the compassionate, the people hidden in plain sight who do the right thing not for glory but out of a sense of duty.

America has never been perfect for all people, but it never stops striving to be that place taking on our shortcomings with protests, church meetings, policy changes and societal upheavals. It often takes too long, and it often has setbacks, but at our core, we fundamentally never stop trying.

There is a reason our ancestors immigrated to this country. It was a land that held a promise of opportunity, broad freedoms and unoppressive government. That's the reason people still want to come here.

Cuomo is wrong. Had he said America's never been perfect, he would've been right. But amid our flaws is plenty of greatness. We do great things every day, and we aspire to do more tomorrow.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: america; cuomo; values

1 posted on 08/21/2018 8:05:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Yeah, he’s been looking at himself in a mirror and doesn’t see any greatness.


2 posted on 08/21/2018 8:07:10 AM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

3 posted on 08/21/2018 8:07:41 AM PDT by yoe (Mid-term vote for our Constitution.....not Socialism...keep on draining the swamp!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

AndyC IS the enemy, and knows he is “wrong”, but also KNOWS he is at war against America, and all for which we stand, and actually considers himself a “patriot”.

As did Benedict Arnold.


4 posted on 08/21/2018 8:08:00 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

If immigrant Granddad Cuomo were still around, I’m guessing
Grandson Andrew would be trying to pick himself up off the floor.


5 posted on 08/21/2018 8:14:27 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Remember when children were taught the Golden Rule:”Do unto others as you would have them do to you?” That is an excellent guide for living in a civil society in any age.


6 posted on 08/21/2018 8:15:12 AM PDT by txrefugee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: treetopsandroofs

Benedict Arnold actually was a patriot at one time.

AndyC was always an enemy.


7 posted on 08/21/2018 8:15:14 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: txrefugee

Very well said.


8 posted on 08/21/2018 8:16:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

He wouldn’t know where to look even if you glued a GPS to his forehead, gave him coordinates, and a pack of seeing eye dogs to get him there! Why?

Because he doesn’t want or care to look!


9 posted on 08/21/2018 8:17:50 AM PDT by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Having lived and worked in Manhattan for 7 years, I know that the likes of Cuomo thinks Manhattan is America. If “america” was never great, he’s speaking of Manhattan and not the whole of the country. (sorry, my old Manhattan friends)


10 posted on 08/21/2018 8:18:09 AM PDT by llevrok (Vote while it's still legal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; vette6387; NFHale; rodguy911; SkyPilot; ZULU; mazda77

Like any other brain-dead Marxist Liberal, Cuomo’s head is up his rectum so he can’ see anything but Feces!


11 posted on 08/21/2018 8:20:15 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ExTexasRedhead

He did not group in real America...never went to a real school...

Probably never work a day with real people..

But he will get elected and the state will continue downhill

I left in 1980


12 posted on 08/21/2018 8:55:15 AM PDT by Hojczyk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Salena Zito is a National Treasure and her book, "The Great Revolt" is excellent and if the left would read it, and understand it, there would be a 'blue wave'.

gubbener cumo is one stupid sumanabitch.

13 posted on 08/21/2018 9:50:29 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Kill all mooselimb, terrorist savages, with extreme prejudice! Deus Vult!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The world has never been perfect and never will be perfect. The poor will always be with us and herding cats is nearly if not actually impossible. I actually have more hope that there are cats who can be herded and that there is someone who can herd cats then I have that poverty can ever be eliminated. I also wonder whose right or strong-armed privilege it is to eliminate poverty as it reeks of totalitarianism and the malignancy of altruism to force conformity among the populace. There will always be some type of poverty in the world, whether measured in wealth, health or spirit. It doesn’t mean you don’t lend a necessary hand where able, it just means the viciousness necessary to create and enforce Eden-like utopian ideals has been tried before with millions killed or left starving in its wake. Even God allowed for free will which allows for the consequences of our choices. While some think love and doing “good deeds” is a positive, sometimes it’s is snare that entraps and binds against another’s will. It can be a double edged sword where the wielder is just has likely to be cut as is anyone who won’t yield to the nemesis of their self-righteousness.

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture” Psalm 37:3

“The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want, but you will not always have me.” Mark 14:7

Choose wisely for the impassionate help of a fool can be a destructive force.


14 posted on 08/21/2018 10:33:03 AM PDT by This I Wonder32460 (Tired of irrational expectations. I am as imperfect as I always have & always will be.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The usual con job from the Left is that if they can find a single imperfection the system is all bad. If they can’t find them, they make them up themselves - the Kiddies In Cages fiasco, the racist or sexist incidents that turn out to be phony - the list is long. Cuomo isn’t any different from the rest of these self-righteous clowns and his only problem is that he got caught on video.


15 posted on 08/21/2018 10:45:07 AM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yoe

#3 Democrats did not want a statue of those fireman at the WTC after 9/11 They wanted it at least hidden and not displayed prominently as they thought it was racist and was not diverse...


16 posted on 08/21/2018 10:46:32 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: All

(Photoshop and text courtesy of FReeper poconopundit).

17 posted on 08/21/2018 2:21:39 PM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Andy, baby-——when you said “America was never that great,, that wasnt the first time you said something supremely stupid and divisive.

You once said, and I quote: “Conservatives have no place in New York.”

Wanna walk that one back, too, sweetheart?


18 posted on 08/21/2018 2:22:03 PM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson