Here are great family lessons for Independence Day from Princess Di, who is a commentator on James Golden’s show on WABC radio. James, aka Bo Snerdley, calls her Princess Di, Princess of Policy. Her name is Diana Mee.
Diana Mee
Patriotism
One time I was in the back seat of the car, he was driving, and he [her father] said something probably pro-American, and I was very sneery, and I said, “Oh, that’s just nationalism, and he pulled the car over, and he said, “That is not nationalism, that is patriotism. I did not fight my way across Europe to have my kids sit there and sneer at patriotism. This is America.”
I have never forgotten that moment; I was 15 years old, and I was stunned, because my father was very kind to me, as very; I was, you know, special to him as firstborn, and for him to be that angry and to tend to basically pull the car over and scold me.
I did not understand the lesson he was telling me, but I do now, and I’m so grateful that’s one of the things that I’m so happy to have late in life later in life is that feeling of patriotism and love of country, and a lot of it was instilled in me by my dad.
What Victory Means to Americans
Another story, just quick, is he told me this story when he was 18 years old and in France after the liberation of towns, and he and his troops were marching through the liberated towns, and he looked up at about, I mean, he saw a young woman who was just cheering and celebrating the American troops, and he realized, as an 18 year old, that his country did not come into that town to conquer it, that his country, America, had come into that town victorious to give her back her life, and he understood that about America as an 18 year old soldier, and he told me that, and I am so grateful for that insight, and for that understanding that he got in that moment, glimpsing that young woman, who was now free to live her life, and so.
