by Paul A. Aronhime
I served this country in uniform. I’ve spent 25+ years building businesses in it. And this summer, I’m watching it do something I didn’t expect to move me this much: open its arms to the world in a spectacular way.
The 2026 World Cup is here — 16 host cities across the US, Mexico, and Canada, millions of visitors crossing borders to watch the beautiful game. And something is happening that I suspect doesn’t make the headlines back home in most visitors’ countries.
They’re meeting the America I know and love, and the America we all know is here, but so many try to cover up. Not the one filtered through cable news or outrage-driven algorithms. Not the caricature. The real one — the one I wore the uniform for. Strangers buying a round for fans wearing a jersey they’ve never heard of. A grandmother in Kansas City is teaching a Moroccan family her secret BBQ rub. Cab drivers in Houston are turning up the radio when a goal goes in, high-fiving riders they met four minutes ago. Bars in Philadelphia were packed wall to wall with flags from a dozen nations, all singing different songs, all buying each other drinks. The appeal of ranch dressing and the singing of John Denver’s “Country Roads”. Magic.
I’ve talked to visitors this month and watched others’ feeds, who came expecting division with their guard up and found something else entirely: a country that, when it’s not being asked to argue, is really, really good at throwing a celebration. Making room at the table. Offering some of the most beautiful natural wonders and celebrating someone else’s win like it’s their own.
This is what I always knew was underneath the noise and the veil of negativity. You don’t serve a country for the politics. You serve it for the people — for “We the People,” the ones who show up for each other, who welcome the stranger, who turn a stadium parking lot into a cookout for fans they’ll never see again. Who can celebrate differences with a cheer. That’s the America that built my career, raised my values, and earned my loyalty long before any election cycle did.
The World Cup didn’t create this. It just gave the world a reason to finally see it. The real us. Proud, patriotic, and free. If you’re one of the visitors who’s experienced that this summer — that unexpected warmth, that hospitality you weren’t told to expect — I hope you carry it home with you. And I hope it changes the story you tell about us.
Because, despite everything that divides us on a given day, this is still a country that knows how to celebrate together. We are not perfect, but I’ve never been prouder to be an American and to call her my home.
Paul A. Aronhime is a U.S. Army Veteran that serves as an Advisory Board Member on the University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies and is on the Advisory Group for the Montana State University Institute for National Security Research and Education (INSRE)