Editor:
Having just come home from a visit to your province, I feel that every resident of the United States would do well to visit Prince Edward Island. It’s not simply that your island is so beautiful. It’s because your people might teach us more about ourselves and what we might be if we could just ease up our collective sense of entitlement and the grouchiness that sometimes accompanies it.
In our two days in Charlottetown, we encountered service people who were unfailingly cheerful, motorists who were always deferential to pedestrians and residents whose homes and property were invariably attractive.
It was so pleasant to have people inquire about where we were from and, with a big smile, ask us how we liked the Island. And it was uplifting to see pride in geographic identity. In the U.S., we’re inclined to identify ourselves in terms that divide (Democrat/Republican, rich/poor, white/black/Hispanic) rather than unite.
You need not worry about Charlottetown and the rest of P.E.I. being overrun by American hordes. Indeed, that might be too much for even your polite drivers to bear. How beneficial it would be, though, to import and impart your good spirit to the United States.
Thank you for a great time, including our viewing of the June 16 production of The (almost) Full Monty. (I couldn’t believe all the people who apologized to us simply because they had to pass by us to get to their seats.)
Bob Martin,
Havertown, Penn.
