I recently listened to a speech (on a French website) given by Francois Macron to an audience of students at a university in The Netherlands. He spoke for about an hour, in English, without notes and with eloquence. His central message to the students was that the future of Europe would be in their hands - and in the hands of the next generation of Europeans. He warned that Europe could no longer count on the USA for any kind of leadership. As an American, that was hard to hear, yet fully understandable.
When my wife and I are traveling in Europe, we experience restaurant seating that places diners close to each other. We invariably find ourselves in conversation with Europe natives and fellow travelers from all over the world. They are all well informed on American politics - and are uniformly perplexed. I sometimes respond that it is difficult to find role model candidates for public office in a country that has only 375 million citizens.
I recently listened to a speech (on a French website) given by Francois Macron to an audience of students at a university in The Netherlands. He spoke for about an hour, in English, without notes and with eloquence. His central message to the students was that the future of Europe would be in their hands - and in the hands of the next generation of Europeans. He warned that Europe could no longer count on the USA for any kind of leadership. As an American, that was hard to hear, yet fully understandable.
When my wife and I are traveling in Europe, we experience restaurant seating that places diners close to each other. We invariably find ourselves in conversation with Europe natives and fellow travelers from all over the world. They are all well informed on American politics - and are uniformly perplexed. I sometimes respond that it is difficult to find role model candidates for public office in a country that has only 375 million citizens.
Haunting stories. Such is where we are.