As I've journeyed across the U.S. I've been looking for ways that Americans have changed in the past half-century or so. Nothing made me prouder - or sadder - than visiting the Prisoner of War exhibit in Holdrege, Nebraska.
This section of the Prairie Museum told the story of the giant World War II POW Camp in nearby Atlanta. For the most part it was a story of soldiers from a brutal, deadly enemy being treated as human beings.
One room of the exhibit is devoted to an Army soldier's paintings that told the story of daily life at the camps. The paintings showed German prisoners being trucked to work nearby farms and returning to camp with food baked by farmers wives.
They told of prisoners taking classes, painting, putting on vaudeville shows and eating heartily. They showed a dinner served by local people for prisoners whose train was delayed.
I know America was far from perfect in the 1940s
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and I'm sure the Atlanta camp wasn't a country club. But many of the prisoners gave gifts to their American friends before they returned to Germany after the war. Reportedly only one prisoner escaped - and he returned voluntarily. And many of the former prisoners later came back to visit the people they met here.
"This was about enemies becoming friends," said Susan Perry, a museum employee.
To me, the exhibit told one more story. The story of who and what Americans were back then. It was the best of America, we won our enemies' hearts. That's what makes me so proud - we set an example for the world to follow.
But I don't believe that's true today. It brings me to tears to say that.
If you're looking for differences between America then and now, Holdrege, Nebraska is a good place to start.
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