96- America’s Semi-Quincentennial

In this episode, Peter and Sonny discuss America's 250th birthday, the enduring principles behind the Declaration of Independence, and why freedom, meritocracy, entrepreneurship, and free markets continue to shape the nation's success. 

They examine how international visitors to the FIFA World Cup view the United States through viral social media videos that highlight American innovation, consumer choice, opportunity, and optimism. 

The conversation also explores constitutional rights, free speech, religious liberty, immigration, patriotism, skilled trades, and the essential role construction professionals have played in building America's infrastructure, landmarks, and economy.

In this episode:

• America's 250th anniversary and the nation's founding principles 
• Meritocracy, capitalism, and economic opportunity 
• Viral videos showing how international visitors experience America 
• Free speech, religious liberty, and constitutional rights 
• The construction industry's role in building America's legacy 
• Patriotism, immigration, and the future of the American dream

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Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast. This is episode number 96. I am Sonny Maken, COO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Peter Dyga 0:18

And I'm Peter Dyga, president and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Sonny Maken 0:23

You are listening to the Obvious Podcast or watching the Obvious Podcast where all opinions expressed are our own, unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga 0:30

Love the show, subscribe on any major podcast platform, or watch us in action on YouTube, follow the Obvious Podcast on Instagram, X, True Social, and TikTok. All the links you need are in the show notes. Reach out to us anytime at The Obvious@ abc eastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. So happy Friday, Sonny. Happy This might be a uh holiday Friday for something.

Sonny Maken 0:59

But you got us working.

Peter Dyga 1:00

So yep, well, here we are working.

Sonny Maken 1:01

Happy quincentennial? Happy semi-quin quincentennial eve.

Peter Dyga 1:07

Happy birthday, America. That's what we're celebrating. That's right. We're celebrating America's birthday.

Sonny Maken 1:11

It's July 3rd. We're hoping you're having a great weekend.

Peter Dyga 1:14

Have you seen the memes like I'm old enough to remember the bicentennial? Well, I am literally old enough to remember the bicentennial. Are you really? Yeah. Were you born after the bicentennial?

Sonny Maken 1:22

I was born um when was the bicentennial? 1976. I was a year old.

Peter Dyga 1:29

Okay.

Sonny Maken 1:30

So I was around, but I don't remember it.

Peter Dyga 1:34

By the way, some the some of the founding documents landed in Miami. Miami's one of like great cities that are hosting them. So if you're not aware, I was not aware.

Sonny Maken 1:45

Speaking of founding documents, I have a fun fact for you. So I was doing a little bit of, usually as you know, I mean I hope our audience knows, we just sit down and start talking. We really don't engage in a lot of show prep. I'm sure it doesn't show. It doesn't show. But this time I wanted to be a little prepared because you know it's America's birthday, it's 250 years. It's it's a semi-quin. Semi-quincentennial is the two fifty. Very complicated. Thank you, Mr. Producer. 250. I was I was just curious. I did some research, right? And I found out that the bill, the declaration of independence, like the actual bill was passed on July 2nd.

Peter Dyga 2:21

Okay.

Sonny Maken 2:22

Right? And they it took them two days to write. And so when they wrote the actual Declaration of Independence, it was written on July 4th. That was the date. And it actually didn't completely get signed until August. But that's the document that made the rounds for July 4th.

Peter Dyga 2:35

Okay.

Sonny Maken 2:35

But one of the founding fathers, now I'm blanking on who it was, I want to look this up. One of the founding fathers was convinced that July 2nd would be the date that we would celebrate. Okay. Um so I think he wrote a letter to his wife on July 3rd and said July 2nd will forever be the day in America. Wow, close. Where they would, yeah, where they would celebrate um Independence Day with fireworks and parades. And I always thought uh I thought that was interesting that that mistake got made by him. But then everybody is really celebrating it on the fourth.

Peter Dyga 3:06

Yeah, go out, by the way. There's gonna be a uh movie this weekend that's around the country. It's called uh the young George Washington, I think. Really? Maybe free or virtually free. It's uh so it's be a great uh way to celebrate July 4th. Go see a a movie about uh John Adams. So John Adams was the one that's gonna be. John Adams thought it was gonna be July 2nd. Yeah.

Sonny Maken 3:27

Uh so this movie Young George Washington?

Peter Dyga 3:29

Young George Washington, I think it's called. Yeah. I mean I only know that because uh during our legislative conference, I was there a day earlier and had some free time and went to Mount Vernon. I hadn't been in years. Oh wow. And it's uh from my recollection, it's it's changed quite a bit, been developed quite a bit, which is cool. I mean, redeveloped or restored. So but anyway, it was uh quite quite impressive. So I found uh very interesting uh that in one of the the the main room of the house where they did most of their entertaining and and whatnot, uh had a picture of Mary on the wall. Really? Yeah, of the Virgin Mary. So George washing the header. And uh I think St. John had two pictures, related pictures. The rest were mostly landscapes from uh the countryside, American countryside, and waterfalls and lakes and whatnot.

Sonny Maken 4:18

Okay.

Peter Dyga 4:18

Anyway, and you know, this was sort of reflecting uh the way it they pr they understand stood it to be. They were pretty confident about uh most of the furniture and everything they have is pretty much as it was when he uh passed away. So anyway, I thought I found that interesting. Right because he was uh he was an Anglican? I think he was an Anglican. He was an Anglican, right?

Sonny Maken 4:38

Yeah and they ended up becoming Episcopalians, right? The Anglicans turned into Episcopalians, right? Yeah, but that's that's another show. That's another show.

Peter Dyga 4:48

But today we're celebrating the 250th. 250th of America. So I hope you have a a great weekend. Go see a great movie, enjoy your hot dogs and hamburgers and barbecue. Do you have any traditions? Uh usually beach when we can. Beach? Okay. Uh yep, I think.

Sonny Maken 5:03

So I have a really silly one because I was in high school when this movie came out called Independence Day about the aliens with Will Smith. So every July 4th we watch that together. Right? I'm like unique. And my kids are like, that's so cheesy. Look how terrible the special effects are. You know? But you're gonna shut up and appreciate America. Like, I don't care.

Peter Dyga 5:23

I don't care how terrible the special effects are. So I don't know, what do you think? How what is the state of the country 250 years later? So so I worry a lot, I'll be honest. I've you know, I've talked a lot about I really you know it seems like a a day doesn't go by where I don't read some story where and I'm gonna use this fancy word because it's a it's uh a critocracy. You know what a crytocracy is? No. Um it's a government that's run by judges. Oh wow elected officials. And when you have judges every day that are basically deciding, well, no, the chief executive can't really exec execute, you know, right? He can't really run the government, you know. He can't really I mean it's uh I work it's not so much kings we have to worry about, but um a quarton.

Sonny Maken 6:07

You know, I see your point, but I I don't have much faith in Congress either, right? Like I look at these guys. And and certainly presidents come and go. And we've had some I've you know, I'm old enough to live through some really real doozies when it comes to presidents. And it's just I think what scares me about the future of the country is this whole idea of how just massively divided our world views are. Like half or whatever that number is, the country just sees the world. Isn't it? All right, so that's enough of the negativity.

Peter Dyga 6:38

Yes. We're gonna talk uh because um there are, it seems like half of us that just don't love their country enough to where uh we really have been brought and humbled by some recent videos, uh especially during the World Cup, um, of Europeans or or uh I mean not from Europe, but just foreigners, you know, somebody from outside the country visiting, and their observations in these videos. Maybe you all have seen some of them, but we just thought they were so these neighborhoods look exactly the same as every movie we've ever seen.

Audio From Video 7:15

The American flags, people have got race flags up. This old couple just walked past me and they go, Good morning. I was like, What the hell? You do actually talk to each other here. Like, this is a high school stadium. What? Look at the amount of seats in this place. Do they actually fill these stadiums? Like, do people actually come to the games and actually fill these out? Because that's honestly mental. Like, that is crazy. There is a ton of seats in here. If this was England, it would literally be like on a little park field with dog everywhere. It's just incredible. Absolutely incredible. There really is. Like no other. I honestly think unless you've unless you live in America, or unless you or unless you visit here, you can't really comprehend how nice these areas are.

Peter Dyga 8:11

Such a great, you know, some of them more serious than others, but uh so we're gonna we're gonna run some of them. Yep, we're gonna play some course of this uh uh birthday celebration for our country because um I don't know, maybe it's kind of cool to see how others, and instead of focusing on the negativity, see how others when they're visiting America.

Sonny Maken 8:30

My favorite was a French guy at Bookie's, and he's like this bookie, and he and he's got a French accent, which I'm obviously not gonna try and emulate. And he's like, This bookie's his 120 stations, uh pumps. And he's like, Are they refueling the American Air Force? Like he's he's so confounded. Yes, you know, and then he goes inside and he's even more confounded. He's like, I'm I'm used to a broken coffee machine and a terrible sound.

Peter Dyga 8:55

There's a million of them about them eating at the most simple. Yeah, the best thing since some guy was it?

Sonny Maken 9:03

Some German guy named Freddie. He was he's all over over the social medias. He was at a Waffle House at 1 a.m. eating breakfast, you know. And he's like, We will definitely be back. This is amazing, right?

Peter Dyga 9:16

You know, there's a picture of the one guy in uh or there's several actually, you know, of people visiting Walmart, and they're just astounded by the you know, it harkens back to I think it was a Nikita Khrushchev, you know, who visited some grocery store back in the I forget about it.

Sonny Maken 9:28

Oh, Boris Yeltsin't that was a good one. Boris Yeltsin, yep.

Peter Dyga 9:30

You know, where he just couldn't, you know, he couldn't believe he as a leader didn't realize the lies that they were telling their people. You know, they they thought they'd come to a capitalist America and see uh scarcity on the shelves, and he saw the exact opposite. So there's uh there's you know one that I just found kind of funny because I uh uh my sister visited uh in Costa Rica once, our house in Costa Rica, and we got interviewed by a very popular uh evening or nighttime show there called Queese, I think. And uh it's kind of a comedy like making fun of uh the Costa Ricans and people. And it was we're in the middle of a busy street in downtown San Jose, and they asked, you know, they they they caught wind of this gringa, you know, and they're like went up to her and interviewed her and said, Oh, you're visiting, you know, what do you think of Costa Rica? And my sister's like, Oh, you know, like a stupid foreigner would do, oh, Costa Rica, everything is muy bueno, you know, and they she they ran her that night. And so it reminds me of this there's this Asian guy who's in Texas, and you know, they he doesn't speak good English or broken English in one of these videos, and he's like, Oh my god, Texas is great. Right. Everything's so big, you know, talking about Texas.

Audio From Video 10:37

So I have America Texas. Texas is good, everything is big.

Sonny Maken 10:42

I've stayed in some like authentic Japanese hotels. I would never go back to one of those. I mean, I it's like because of their size. Oh, yeah. Everything is just so tiny, sure, sure. And so small.

Peter Dyga 10:52

So do you recall any of the others that you've seen? Or you know, yeah.

Sonny Maken 10:55

So uh this Freddy guy, you know, oh, they can't believe how friendly Marigans are. Like some guy tweeted about how that's beautiful. Right? He got a ride like an hour away because he was trying to save money on Uber.

Peter Dyga 11:04

A lot of Texas ones about the barbecue and eating out there. They just, oh my god, and the friendliness of people, which is awesome. Uh there's some real serious ones just about people walking around downtowns and parks and how beautiful and clean and friendly and uh you know.

Sonny Maken 11:19

Which kind of makes you wonder how how does the European media portray America? It does make you wonder, right?

Peter Dyga 11:24

This is how flabbergasted they are. There was one guy that was like, like, cancel your vacations to Ibiza. You know, just cancel them and come to America. He's like, you know, the Chamber of Commerce couldn't do a better job or uh They've lost their way anyway, but that's a different conversation.

Sonny Maken 11:41

So any but I wanted to ask you 50 years, it's big, man. Yeah. But I wanted to ask you a question. What what do you have a favorite part of the Declaration of Independence?

Peter Dyga 11:51

A favorite part of the Declaration of Independence? Yeah, I do. Well, I mean, um I think one, the recognition that we're endowed with these things by our creator. There you go. Nailed it. You know, and that they're inalienable rights. They're not things that government gives us. Or can take it. No, thank you, Mr. Whoever, or Mrs. Whoever. It's not a privilege that you grant us.

Sonny Maken 12:10

So can we talk about how unusual that was for 1776? Uh well, it's pretty damn unusual, right? It's groundbreaking. To groundbreaking to say your rights don't come from government or from a king, that's right. Or from an emperor. They literally just come from God and nobody can take it away from you. That's right.

Peter Dyga 12:26

So, but yeah, you gotta protect it, you know. Only one generation.

Sonny Maken 12:30

Judges will take it away from you. Judges and you know, yeah. Politicians. Yeah. Right? So absolutely. So I do I do worry about the divide in this country, but I think you know, I never thought I would live through a time where nationalism or patriotism would become uh controversial. Controversial. It's crazy. Like that's insane to me that patriotism is controversial.

Peter Dyga 12:50

Yeah.

Sonny Maken 12:51

But that it's somehow emblematic of some these other negative traits and people. I I don't I don't get that. You know, being the son of immigrants, I really don't understand that whole concept. Um, you know, those of us who like have chosen to make this our home and and assimilate and be part of this culture and be part of this country. Like I know the the love and appreciation for what the meritocracy of this country. I mean, I know so many immigrants who are just in love with America and what America has allowed them.

Peter Dyga 13:21

Right. Well, it used to be kind of the core of uh our immigrant um you know, I don't know, population. Um and there's some you know, there's some fair criticism or questioning about whether we've gotten away from that, whether we're actually trying to be deliberate and and thoughtful and intentional about who we uh allow to assimilate. And by the way, it's over a million people a year, a million people a year that legally are allowed to come and immigrate to the United States. So, you know, uh if if we're not, and we always have been very deliberate about making sure that it's the people that w want to take advantage of that meritocracy. Yeah by the fact that uh they can work hard and achieve almost anything they want. We talked in recent podcasts about this one welder that was part of SpaceX that became uh you know, oh yeah, became a millionaire millionaire overnight because of the just because of the stocks that he's owned from working for that company for years. You know, that's uh maybe an exceptional example, but um the country's full of them, full of people that just work hard and by the way, I mean, um there's always somebody that makes more or has more than you, right? But what what does it take to feel like a king in this country? That's the way I you know I mean really interesting. Safe, secure, be able to eat the way we're able to eat. Um anyway, it doesn't take much, and that's the beauty of the country. So I think that's the beauty, the the the meritocracy, the being able to pursue freedom, and then these videos to me drove home the simple things are part of what makes America great.

Sonny Maken 14:55

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 14:56

Simple, silly things. Yeah. You know, there were some that were like he had a I don't know if you saw this one, he had a cup. You gotta, we gotta find this one. Uh, and he had a soda, and he said, I I can get free refills of this.

Sonny Maken 15:10

I can refill. Yeah. I can refill this a thousand times. Yeah, but you won't drink a thousand cups of good and it's free.

Peter Dyga 15:22

You paid free, you paid it once. Bro, slow down. I mean, it's just right, these are silly, simple things, but they're they're liberties in a way.

Sonny Maken 15:34

I saw I saw one related Absolutely, they're liberties. But there was there was one, you know those machines, the Coke machines, they can press buttons and like make all these, you know. And he had he had his drink sitting there, took a picture, and the screens, of course, filled with options. He's like, How am I expected to choose, right? Like he was flabbergasted. Like, I can't pick from this. Like, what is this? And it's just it shows you sort of the European um mentality or mind.

Peter Dyga 15:59

The size of the cup, I think. They got completely thrown off. It is liberty.

Sonny Maken 16:03

It is liberty. It's like, yeah. And being able to choose what you want to eat, drink, when, where, how, you know, like the having having Sure.

Peter Dyga 16:11

So I don't know, celebrate that, enjoy that this weekend, right? Yeah. Um Defend it. You know.

Sonny Maken 16:18

Yeah. I have a great bucky story for you. Um it was in the last I don't know, 10 years uh post-COVID, but so in the last, I don't know, what it's six years, four years. I decided to take my family to St. Augustine for Christmas. So, you know, my parents are there. It's beautiful. My dog's there, it's beautiful. Uh the white light on Christmas, yeah. So we were saying at this like big resort, and I just assumed we'll have Christmas dinner at the resort. And I didn't bother making reservations. So Christmas Day, I can't get a table anywhere. Wow. It's booked. Booked. Across the street from my our hotel with a Bucky's. Oh my god. So we ended up following eating either. My kids. My kids loved it because they love barbecue. Bucky's. Yeah, my parents were pretty upset. They were like, We're eating Christmas dinner at a gas station. I'm like, no, we're buying it at a gas station and taking it back to our hotel. You know, it's not a gas station. It's a country store with some pumps. With some pumps, with 120. 120 pumps. 120 pumps. But that was my and that was my first time in a bucky's. And I was like, wow, Christmas Day that I'm actually stepping foot in uh in a bucky's and getting food for my family. So yeah, yeah, never made that mistake again. And learn learned my life. But you know, Christmas Day, the place was packed. I mean, it's open, they're making fresh barbecue, the fo the food is being uh turned turned over real fast, and just this this idea of um choice, right? Capitalism and free markets. I mean, you see that in effect like every day in this country. Absolutely. And it's a gift that comes from knowing that the government doesn't control you, that your rights come from God, and you have the freedom to succeed, but you also have the freedom to fail, right? Like that's a whole sort of in meritocracy not equal outcomes. It's not equal outcomes. Not everybody rises to the top. And I think that freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail is what made what has made this country great.

Peter Dyga 18:07

Right.

Sonny Maken 18:08

And all the countries that have tried to de-minimize the freedom to fail, you can tell, have also really put a hold on the freedom to succeed. Right. Right. Absolutely. And it's just it's really the price you pay for whether you have freedom or you don't. And I think when you lose the fact that freedom is sacrosanct, and I think that's when countries and cultures and all of that gets destroyed. But apparently, according to the internet, we are one of the oldest continuous constitutional republics there is at 250 years of apparently very, very rare. So obviously grateful to be an American, uh grateful to be uh celebrating this 250th Independence Day with you and with our audience and with this great show. And just our I mean, we've done so many episodes on meritocracy and freedom and open markets, and to kind of see that from a European perspective has been super interesting. You know. So Mr. Producer has just informed me that we are, the United States, is the second oldest constitutional republic in the history of the world. And the oldest is the nation of San Marino. And I know our audience are like, where the hell is San Marino? Why have I never heard of it? It's a tiny little city state. According to Mr. Producer, it is. So I'm not I'm not gonna argue with it.

Peter Dyga 19:27

All right.

Sonny Maken 19:27

But San Marino is a little city-state inside of Italy, and you thought Italy only had one city-state inside it, which was the Vatican. But it actually has two countries within it. Okay, you know?

Peter Dyga 19:37

Huh.

Sonny Maken 19:38

Um and how much older? 1700 years. Wow. They've been a constitutional republic for 1700 years.

Peter Dyga 19:45

That's really hard to believe.

Sonny Maken 19:47

Amazing, right?

Peter Dyga 19:47

Yeah.

Sonny Maken 19:48

Little country you've never even heard of. San Marino.

Peter Dyga 19:51

What's uh your favorite civil liberty speech rights. Speech. Speech. I just And what does that mean? Because I think uh again, all these things are are being challenged a bit these days. Uh does that just mean um the ability to say things that are acceptable or not offensive?

Sonny Maken 20:09

Oh, I think that's the opposite, right? Yeah, it's the opposite. I think I I want people to say the most offensive things there are, even things that I that would upset me personally, they have the right to say.

Peter Dyga 20:20

You know, it used to be, you know, they make fun of oldies, old timers like me, but there used to be a saying, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names, names will never hurt me.

Sonny Maken 20:27

Names will never hurt me.

Peter Dyga 20:28

You know, and that was a it was important little fable or whatever you call those things, you know, little sayings that our grandparents are had. And the point of that was exactly I think it was in a way, it was about free speech. It was like names and words don't hurt people. They may be offensive, they may be ugly, uh they certainly can be wrong, you know, but our the foundation of one of our civil liberties and and um and the Bill of Rights is free speech, which again, it's important to say, doesn't mean uh only being able to say what's unoffensive or what people accept. Yeah, it's quite the opposite. Absolutely. And it's important for that. So do you have another one?

Sonny Maken 21:06

Uh Religion. Absolutely. That's you know profoundly important, you know.

Peter Dyga 21:12

Uh I'm glad that and what does it mean and what doesn't it mean? We're out of time. I'm so glad we're out of time.

Sonny Maken 21:25

Oh. Uh historically? I mean, historically, it was about denominationalism. We were trying to avoid I don't think the founding fathers ever encouraged or envisioned a country as pluralistic as we have ended up being. I think they were just thinking I think that's true.

Peter Dyga 21:40

But it was kind of to avoid a church a state church. A state church, yeah. But it's a good idea. But again, the old saying of it's freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. You know, so there were certainly no uh limitations on exercising it in the public square. Right. It's just a matter of the public square endorsing any one particular denomination.

Sonny Maken 21:59

So I mean, I do want to end on this note, and I wanted to kind of say this point about when we were in DC um a few weeks ago. You know, uh you're driving around and you're seeing all the monuments in the Jefferson and the Washington, and and all I could think about was like everything. I mean we visited it recently.

Peter Dyga 22:19

Did you get out at a time? I did. I mean I saw the uh reflection. Somebody who's been visiting there was a period in my life when every summer I would be there on the Capitol for the Capitol Force and watching the fireworks and stuff. I mean, I have spent many, many uh you know, weeks or weekends there, and I've never seen the city that's that's I don't know.

Sonny Maken 22:38

It reminded me of when I used to live there for college. So it because it was very beautiful then, and it just reminded me of that time frame when it was Anyway, sorry I interrupted it. Oh, I was just gonna talk about I don't know if you want to ring your bell. I was just gonna talk about how important builders have been to this country. Amen. You look at the you look at the uh monuments and and you look at these amazing buildings and the Supreme Court building and the building museum, and you're just like they literally uh trade skilled tradespeople built that with their hands.

Peter Dyga 23:09

If you ever walk through the Capitol, I've always loved the pictures that are on the side of the corridors between the history of those buildings and buildings around DC being constructed and whatnot. So beautiful. Yep, that was that's our industry. That's our folks, our people. It's our people who did that. Hardworking uh grit. Yep. Grit-filled Americans. Absolutely.

Sonny Maken 23:32

Happy birthday, America.

Peter Dyga 23:33

Happy birthday, America. Hope you enjoy it. Be safe. And uh we'll see you. Uh well, if uh you have any comments you want to send us, you can always do so at the obvious uh at abceflorida.com. We'll see you next Friday. We'll see you next Friday. Be safe. Ciao.