Europeans Love Obama

Europeans Love 'Alabama'

by Rick Steves

Barack Obama Caricature Illustration Taylor Jones

Recently, I was filming a public television show in Burgundy, France, at a fairy-tale little Momand-Pop chateau.

When I'm filming, get out of my way &ellips; the sun's going down &ellips; we've got work to do.

I just don't have time for politeness.

But the aristocratic family, who had called that castle home for centuries, insisted, "We must stop and have a ceremony because we have an American film crew working here in our castle."

They cracked open a fine bottle of wine and then brought out with some ceremony, as if it were a precious relic, the big, beautiful, 48-star American flag they had hoisted over their chateau on that great day in 1944 when American troops freed them.

They implored us, saying, "You go home and tell your friends that we will never forget what America did for us with its heroics and its economic and military might and its commitment to liberty."

In recent years, America's go-it-alone foreign policy and the waging of a pre-emptive war have damaged our reputation and angered many of our more reliable friends overseas. But the French family who drank us a toast and honored our flag remembered America at its best.

Europe has long been thankful for how the United States helped free them from fascist Germany, and continued to help out even after the war. Florentine friends tell me of the huge celebration the day a military convoy of trucks flying American flags returned the art treasures the Nazis took from them.

In Burgundy, French aristocrats still treasure the 48-star flag they hoisted over their chateau on the day in 1944 when American troops liberated them from the Nazis.

A friend on the Rhine has lived out a lifelong promise to give visiting Americans an extra dose of hospitality, as thanks for the care packages sent by Americans that he says literally saved him from starving in the hungry months after World War II. Every time I say the name of a Belgian friend, I remember that his parents named him Johnnie after one of the American soldiers who liberated them in 1944. The same is true of Frankie, who runs a clock shop in Rothenburg, Germany. His parents named him after an American pop star, a favorite of theirs in the years when the Marshall Plan was helping to rebuild their bombed-out homeland.

Yet in the last decade or so, Americans abroad have seen plenty of anti-U.S. rallies, posters, and headlines.

A friend who runs a travel bookstore in California claims he's sold more Canadian flags than American ones. It doesn't surprise me that Americans abroad who see the letters USA spray-painted on STOP signs, and the face of our president taped to "Beware of the Dog" signs, would be concerned about how they're received and might even hide their nationality.

Fortunately, people have long treated American travelers kindly, as individuals rather than government representatives. Everywhere I've traveled in recent years from Paris to San Salvador to Shanghai to Tehran I've found that people like Americans and respect our ideals, if not our actions. They simply couldn't support our foreign policy.

Americans would ask, "Don't they remember how we freed them from the Nazis and the Soviets?" And I would answer with certainty, "Yes. But that doesn't mean they will march wherever we ask them to march."

The sad reality is that, in the first decade of the 21st century, if you were in marketing in Europe, one of your responsibilities was to comb any hint of America out of your marketing material. California used to sell. But in recent years, that's been the kiss of death for retail in Europe. On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators, I found congress people were concerned about what they called "the brand of America." It's true. Overseas, the brand of America took a beating over the last decade.

With a new political era dawning in America, the world is paying attention. I remember the first time my Italian friends expressed a curiosity and enthusiasm about some black politician named "Alabama." Now everyone knows Obama's name, and we have a president whom people around the world want to look up to.

America is actually trendy politically.

There's talk of electing Turkish legislators in Germany and North African candidates in France.

Who knows, people might even start naming their children Barack. One thing is for sure, I can hardly wait to fly to Europe and share the joy as our friends there welcome back the old America, with its new determination to engage respectfully with the world.

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