It's become beyond tiring to hear the global community ridicule and chastise the United States. When did we become everyone's designated punching bag? If you're traveling internationally this summer, there's a very high probability that someone somewhere is going to give you a piece of their mind over some random issue they want to pin on this country.
We've quite literally become the butt of a global "Thanks Obama" joke. You live in France and are scared to death of global warming? Thanks, America. You live in the Middle East and are concerned over... well, everything. Thanks, America. Everything everywhere... it's always our fault. We've been labeled the bad guys, the global boogeymen.
And that sentiment has sadly infested our own country. Do Americans really believe in American exceptionalism anymore? Ask a millennial what they believe. Ask a college kid. You'll probably get in response a very carefully rehearsed and memorized script reading from Jeff Daniels on the show The Newsroom where he monologues on how "America is not the greatest country in the world."
America, this is who you are: You just set a record high in charitable giving this past year.
According to the Giving USA Foundation's annual report on philanthropy, Americans gave over $410 billion to charity in 2017. It's never been that high. America, you eclipse the world in total dollars given from your own hard-earned wallet. And the vast majority of that money — $287 billion — was given, not by corporations or foundations, but by single individuals. People like you and me.
No nation on this planet is more generous to our global neighbors than us.
And if you happen to be traveling internationally this summer and someone decides to lecture you on how bad America is, ask them how much their country provides the world with humanitarian aid. Because you aren't just charitable here in the US. This country provides the most foreign aid by far and no one even comes close to us.
The US State Department requested $51 billion last year to allocate toward foreign aid. That's $30 billion more than Germany and the UK give, $40 billion more than France, $45 billion more than Canada.
No country in the world has citizens that give more money than we do. Likewise, no nation on this planet is more generous to our global neighbors than us. American exceptionalism is real.
You are great because you are good. Don't ever stop.