Look around and think on a question: How did we get here? Why do we have what we have? Freedom to speak, travel, read, iPhones? Why does the world look to us for security, innovation, relief in crisis, peace, and stability? Why are we the “go to” where everyone wants to go to? Because America is not an accident.

If you could wave a wand and – in some act, one act – suddenly teach all those high school and college kids to appreciate America, to cherish America, to understand how lucky they are, what would the act be?

We cannot take them back to the hell of Normandy, then hedgerows sprayed with interlocking machinegun fire faced by our grandparents as they fought to liberate Europe, the fear in boys’ eyes as they hit Sicily or rescued their fellow soldiers at Bastogne, both under Patton.

We cannot force them to endure the mud, wait, and eventual hell at Anzio, heat and merciless combat on Iwo, sudden onset of death everywhere at Okinawa and a hundred other Pacific islands, layered in firefights.

We cannot show them the horror of freezing to death, fighting to the death, being overrun at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, the jungle peril, disease, and daily death encountered in Vietnam, wounds – visible and invisible – that shattered the sensitive, calloused the practiced, scars that live, men that died.

We cannot show them how our Founders lived – and fought and wrote, and thought and lost and carried on, with no electric heat, no light at night beyond candles and lanterns, no air conditioning, no cars, trucks, buses, trains, planes, telephones, let alone iPhones, no antibiotics, no Advil or aspirin, no pain relievers in surgery, childbirth, or end days. Yet, they pressed on, gave their all – for our freedom.

We cannot relive before them Lincoln’s endless ailments, the stress of knowing he and our soldiers and their nerve-wracked families lay the survival of our Nation. We cannot show them how Lincoln wrote and delivered the Gettysburg Address fevered with smallpox, honoring 51,000 casualties from the battle.

We cannot show them how Black Americans rose with force of will, patience, strength, faith and confidence in who they were, to lead in major ways, from the Tuskegee Airmen to Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State, or how millions of Americans of every ethnic stripe battled poverty, eyes on the far horizon, dreamed, worked, fought, and never gave up for their dream.

We cannot take them back through the poverty of many leaders, presidents, governors, and later titans of the industry, from Edison and Ford to those who rose, risked, tried, failed, got up again, and worked to make something good happen, despite all. Harry Truman went bankrupt, and Ronald Reagan’s father was an alcoholic; they both made decisions and showed resolve born of adversity and the wisdom it allows.

We cannot take the young and unsuspecting, innocent and hopeful through the hell of what has passed before, which makes possible the peace, freedom, opportunities, and luxuries they enjoy.

So, you may ask, what can we do? How do we convey that America is not an accident, that it is the product of incalculable, unimaginable faith, bravery, risk, and the courage to fight, fall, rise, and fight some more, never giving up, suffering with selflessness, risking all, losing it, yet rallying?

The answer is that, without reading, watching, talking, thinking, praying, and wishing to grasp the great, truly exceptional history of this nation, unique in the history of Mankind, appreciation for where we are, what we enjoy, why we have it, and what is thus expected of us in our time, it is hard.

But one idea comes back to me over and over. With close relatives buried at Arlington, Memorial Day not so far off, and one for teaching, consider just offering to take a class of fifth, eighth, or eleventh graders, or maybe college freshmen … on a walk with a veteran through a veterans’ cemetery.

When you stand in the presence of those who signed up to give all, many of whom did, all of whom understood the idea of obligation, love, living and dying for those things, it sobers the most boisterous soul, quiets the hurried mind, and causes us to leave modernity behind. Something changes, I have watched it.

A walk with a young person through a military cemetery, at first mysterious and uncomfortable, becomes reflective, inquiring, understanding, and appreciative. We know how it works. They must, too. So wave the wand, make it so, find time to go. Little things are sometimes big and teach: America is not an accident.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).