Happy 250th birthday to our beloved United States of America!

“What we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value,” Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, wrote at the start of the American Revolution back in 1776. He, of course, was referring to “freedom” and its value, driving the upcoming struggle to obtain ours from England. There was nothing easy about that mission, nor is it today.

Fast forward a few hundred years to today’s America, where it seems that we are taking more of our freedoms and country for granted. The media here and across the world continually talk down about our country day after day, highlighting our frailties and problems while purposefully ignoring our strengths and virtues — a sad state of affairs, a dangerous place to visit, as we are portrayed here and across the globe by the media.

But not so quickly, my friends. A funny thing is happening along the way, squashing that vitriol, both by the timing and enormous size of the message. It couldn’t have been better timed for me, too, as I was looking for that special something in writing what I considered this seminal piece, capturing the true sentiment of our 250th birthday. Well, it arrived in a way I could have never comprehended.

Thanks to this year’s edition of soccer’s FIFA World Cup, and despite the media’s dire warnings of how dangerous we are as a country, the world decided to pay us a visit anyway, by the millions!

Thanks to the unvarnished, up-to-the-minute, live postings on social media, we are witnessing how much the world has fallen in love with the real United States and our fun-loving, gregarious, neighborly citizens across the country. You see, as the world’s largest sporting event is being played in many of our major sports venues across the country, these most loyal fans, countrymen and countrywomen, came here to catch the action.

However, it’s as if our founding fathers came down from the heavens and gave us this outpouring as a reminder, a present wrapped in gold, as the world took to social media by the tens of thousands to rave about their visit and the “true America” they’ve never seen or heard about.

Personally, I’ve watched literally hundreds of these clips on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. As much as I love America, I am now even prouder of my homeland, by just the actions of my fellow countrymen and women opening up their hearts and homes to our visitors. I laughed, I cried, and I was amazed at the outpouring of love for Americans and America.

For example, in Boston, the Scots peacefully drank the city dry and took over the streets with hundreds of parading bagpipers leading the way. They even took over a Red Sox game, singing throughout the game. Now, they’ve taken over Miami Beach with more bagpipe parades and followers onto the beach.

In Kansas, the town of Lawrence adopted the whole Algerian team who was lodging there. They had parades, picnics and a complete town makeover in the Algerian team colors to welcome and cheer on their new family.

In Kansas City, the Dutch enthusiastically took over four downtown city blocks dressed in a literal sea of orange, singing and dancing with the locals. I saw a post saying “How does the Netherlands, with a population of 18 million, have 24 million attending the World Cup?”

The Norwegians showed off their row like we do the wave.

Many are overwhelmed by our infrastructure and the fact we have so many huge, stunning and well-appointed sports arenas, unlike anywhere in the world.

An enjoyable surprise is how much they’re taking to our everyday style of life, shunning the usual tourist spots. From their gleeful trips to Buc-ee’s on the interstates, to visiting to our bountifully supplied restaurants and supermarkets, they cannot believe “the abundance and number of choices Americans have so readily available.” Things we most likely underappreciate.

Even ranch dressing is such the new-found treasure. I understand the TSA has eased up on the limit people can pack. These videos continue on and on, and we still have a few weeks of the tournament left for more postings.

I wholeheartedly hope you go and watch these very entertaining, heartwarming worldwide testimonials. The joy of this collection is that social media in this form prevents any input or opinions from national media sources and all the ways they work to divide us. These are true reflections of a thankful, thoughtful, positive world view of today’s America — testaments and reminders that we have much more to appreciate and love than to criticize.

Thank you for the reminder. Now, it’s time to do our part and show our appreciation for all America means to us.

Even as we’re a part of the world community, we are still and always will be the freedom-loving, philanthropical, fun-loving and virtuous United States of America — valuing our freedom and all its dearness.