American exceptionalism springs from exceptional individuals

During election years, we often hear the phrase “American exceptionalism.” It actually became an issue during the 2008 presidential campaign.

You’ll get no argument from me about whether the United States is exceptional. No other country played - or could have played - such a leading role in defeating powerful, evil empires such as Nazi Germany, Imperialist Japan and the Soviet Union.

The world is a better place because of the United States.

But I’m uncomfortable with the phrase as defined by Wikipedia, which is how it’s most commonly understood.

According to Wikipedia, “Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservatives and other American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense.”

An assumption of superiority never ends well. Confidence, yes. But assuming superiority breeds arrogance and mistakes, leading to foreign disasters such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, I learned about another kind of American exceptionalism.

A few months back we met a hardworking server at Fish On named Kirby Schuler. Shortly after, she waited on us at Arena’s, right down the street.

Had she changed jobs? Nope. Schuler was still working at Fish On. Sometimes she would work breakfast and lunch at Arena’s and then work dinner at Fish On.

Working one restaurant shift is hard; working two is exhausting. She had to have a good reason.

Not surprisingly, the reason was to earn extra money. What was surprising was why: Schuler’s short, intense stints in the food industry help her fund volunteer missions around the globe.

Schuler works hard for a few months at home so she can volunteer and work hard overseas.

Schuler has done everything from helping a Philippine community rebuild after Typhoon Yolanda in 2013 to working at a farm in Cordoba, Argentina, that provided horse therapy to people with disabilities.

She has created cooking classes and established food pantries in Nigeria, West Africa; and taught English classes in Honduras, Central America, and Vacation Bible School in Mozambique, East Africa.

Closer to home she volunteered for five weeks at New York and New Jersey sites ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, picking up such useful skills as tiling, demolition and drywalling.

Now she’s on her way to Malaysia, where she will once again teach English.

Schuler was born in Staytonville, near Greenwood, and spent her childhood in Delaware, graduating from Greenwood Mennonite School in 2003 as the high school valedictorian.

(Schuler described Staytonville as having “about three houses and some fields when I was growing up.”) In 2007, she graduated from Houghton College, a Christian school in upstate New York, majoring in Intercultural Studies, Concentration in Linguistics with a minor in Missions.

The background helped prepare her for what has been a most unusual career.

Helping others requires more than hard work. As Schuler describes it, her volunteer work abroad also requires a certain humility, an ability to understand before taking action.

“If I go with a Western mindset to make an assessment of a family’s situation,” Schuler said, “I might make a judgment that could end up hurting them.”

Here’s an example of how she might approach working with a family that is poor by American standards.

“I walk into a house with a leaky roof where they don’t have shoes. I might think they need a new roof and shoes.”

“However,” she continued, “their leaky roof might be their only source of indoor water.”

Likewise, providing shoes might seem a no-brainer. But if she buys them new shoes, she said, within a year they will wear out.

At that time, if there are no new shoes to be had, Schuler said, they’ll have neither the shoes nor the calluses they once had to protect their feet.

They’ll be worse off than before.

Schuler helps avoid that kind of mistake by immersing herself within the culture.

“I prefer to stay with a host family or to live a typical lifestyle for that area,” she said.

Sharing living conditions provides solidarity, she said. It encourages people to be more honest about their needs.

“If you stay separated by any levels they are more likely to think of you as a tourist or guest,” Schuler said.

That’s crucial, since the reputation of Americans often precedes them. And not in a good way.

“In almost all countries I have visited, U.S. citizens are viewed as rich, loud and often arrogant,” Schuler said. “Many Americans enter countries without respecting local culture.

“The Americans believe they should be able to dress, speak and behave any way they want.”

Schuler’s actions reflect an attitude grounded in a respect for others and not from a position of supposed superiority.

At age 30, Schuler has volunteered with the inhabitants of six continents, the lone exception being the penguins of Antarctica.

But with someone like Schuler, who knows?

That’s what I call American exceptionalism.

Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.