For Americans and Our Guests, the World Cup Runneth Over

It would be hard to find a passage that better reflects this year's World Cup soccer (OK, OK — "football") championship, which the U.S. is hosting for the first time since 1994.

But not because the other nations participating in this year's World Cup are our "enemies." To the contrary, the reactions of the athletes and fans from other countries who have traveled to and through the U.S. to compete and to cheer on their favorite teams have been nothing short of astounding; in fact, they have taken social media by storm, and Americans by surprise.

Turns out, our guests love America and Americans, and they're telling us why.

I'll just mention a few instances.

FIFA has, of course, placed teams in cities where they have access to proper-sized practice fields. In many cases, that has meant college towns. Lawrence, Kansas, for example, home to the University of Kansas, is hosting the Algerian national team and has welcomed them with open arms. The Jayhawks' marching band learned the Algerian national anthem to welcome the team to the field. Lawrence residents have regularly shown up at the stadium waving Algerian flags and cheering on the players, who reciprocated by inviting local children to practice with them and autographing soccer balls.

Aspects of American culture that have amazed and delighted World Cup fans visiting our country include "big box" stores like Costco, Buc-ee's and Bass Pro Shops, free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, Waffle House, soda machines with dozens of flavor add-ins, free soda refills (and OMG, all the ice), the number of screens at our sports bars, Texas barbecue, Southern sweet tea, biscuits and gravy, the size of college and high school (American) football stadiums, Portillo's in Chicago, hamburgers (everywhere) and the French Quarter in New Orleans. (They were understandably less thrilled with the heat and humidity in the South and the horrendous thunderstorms and tornados that are endemic to the American Midwest in the summer, but they've been troopers about it.)

Other World Cup highlights so far have included the Norway team's incomparable Viking photo, Scotland fans (the "Tartan Army") renting a boat in Boston Harbor for a "booze cruise" and drinking the bars in downtown Boston dry, fans from Japan cleaning up stadiums after a game, Dutch revelers singing "Sweet Caroline," a Dallas pub handing out "World Cup passports" and giving stamps for every game guests watch there, and the Czech national team attending a rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas.

This World Cup is, quite frankly, the best thing to happen to international relations in decades.

Some of the foreign soccer fans visiting the States have posted so frequently that they've acquired an enormous fan base here. Tommo from England, Freddy from Germany and Shaun from Scotland have been surprised at the joy and generosity their heartfelt posts have inspired among Americans. But buried within some of these posts is a big reason: They — and others — have acknowledged that much of what they'd previously heard about America was negative. It's only now that they've traveled here and seen things for themselves that they're realizing what they were told isn't true.

They aren't the only ones. Watching, reading and listening to our foreign guests sing our praises has made many of us realize just how much of what we hear about ourselves is negative and false.

Where do we hear this from? The same places the Europeans do: the press, certain politicians and intellectuals harangue us 24/7/365 with their opinions that America is a country founded on "systemic racism" and only prosperous because of "white supremacy"; that Americans are greedy individualists who are racist, sexist and fill-in-the-blank-phobic; that we "hate brown people," that we're infected with "toxic masculinity," and that our national pride is a tool of oppression.

Seeing the robust nationalism of the French, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Japanese, Norwegians, Greeks, Algerians, Scots and countless others while simultaneously being on the receiving end of so many kind and grateful observations from them about our country and our people has been a real eye-opener and a shot in the arm. To be blunt, it's like having been in an abusive relationship for years with someone who hates you and realizing — finally — that you can get out.

That's not hyperbole. American institutions dominated by the political Left — which include the media, entertainment industry and academia — have spent the past 50 years telling us how awful we are and that the rest of the world justifiably hates us.

Too many Americans believe that and behave accordingly, with incensed TikToks, constant protests, riots and shrill demands to "tear down" the American economic and political systems and replace them with collectivism that is "less selfish" and "more compassionate." The rest may not swallow the self-loathing propaganda but have nevertheless felt beaten down, marginalized, silenced and frustrated.

And now: a break in the clouds; a ray of sunlight; a glimpse of the truth; an epiphany that is a shock to the system in the best possible way. Americans are being told by the very people we were assured despised us that our country is beautiful and diverse; that our parks are family-friendly and our athletic facilities are second to none; that our traditions (and yes, we have them) are meaningful and distinctive; that our food is delicious and our restaurants and bars are bountiful; that our superstores are marvels of supply and organization with bathrooms so clean you could eat off the floor; that the workers in our service industries take real pride in excellent service.

And that we as a people are generous, kind, funny, inclusive, helpful, positive, warm and welcoming.

The professional malcontents who've built their lucrative careers making us hate ourselves are the selfish ones. Those deceitful frauds — not the citizens of other nations — are the "enemies" of Psalm 23 who are wailing and gnashing their teeth as the Lord shows us — through the eyes of our foreign visitors — that though we are imperfect, we are still good and decent and richly blessed.

It's time to reject, once and for all, the hollow accusations of the Left, as well as the shackles that come with them. Our nation's 250th birthday is next month; this World Cup is the best present ever.

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Laura Hollis is an attorney and academic. She resides in Indiana with her husband and their two children.