March 2nd, 2025
Video version: Original English and Finnish translation
Text version: Finnish translation
With tensions rising and political opinions flying across the board, I wanted to take a step back. I’m writing this first and foremost to Americans. I myself am Finnish, so think northern Europe. Think snow, reindeers and aurora, but no polar bears. As a kid, my father worked for two years in Massachusetts and so our family lived there with him. Later, I’ve visited often, mostly up and down around the eastern shore. So, I’m not American, but I’ve picked up the scent – and just maybe, a bit of the accent.
What I love about America, first and foremost, are the people. The people of the United States of America are the United States of America. The free people of the land of the free. You have your hearts and souls in the land. Some for generations upon generations and others for less time, but you all share this love for the land.
I see this deeply in the rural side, with the farmers. You know your land, love your land and grow your land generation after generation. You have fertile farmland, to be sure, but that alone is not enough. Back in the day, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of the world. They had and have among the best farmlands of all the earth. Then one day, the dictator stole the lands, killed the farmers and sent thieves to farm the land in their place. Soon enough, the country was overtaken by poverty and famine. The land is not enough, it needs the people. That’s why American farms keep going where as farms in dictator run countries always fail, sooner or later.
To speak better about America, I would like to tell two stories from history. One about insight, and the other about freedom.
A complex camera
Back in the cold war days, Finland was in a tough spot. In the east, the soviet union kept a squeeze on all its neighbors. We had to watch our words, so we could enjoy the rest of our freedoms. We had American businesses here and friendly relations, but officially they couldn’t be too friendly. Despite this, we knew we shared the heart of freedom, so the unofficial side was another story indeed. Incidentally, this tightrope position between east and west made our country quite the spy haven. Together with countries like Germany or Türkiye, we were a place where rubles and dollars were traded with secrets on every other dark alley. We were a point of interest, even to the United States, and so you had a great deal of covert activities going on here.
One day, our people found a spy camera hidden on an airplane that was flying close to the soviet border. Sure enough, the CIA had managed to plant it there, to get pictures from the other side of the border. This was in a time before spy satellites could do the job. Sorry, my friends, but we caught you in the act, and so we confiscated the camera. We realized soon it was a grand piece of work, the best American engineers could make, highly advanced. It could be useful to us too for the same reasons, but we had absolutely no idea how it worked or even what kind of film it needed.
Officially, we sent a strongly worded note to the American ambassador. Unofficially, we said something else. Then, one day, a government worker found a package on his desk in the morning, with no idea who sent it. In this package were films for this spy camera, as well as a complete instruction manual. The Americans knew that we could do some good with it, and were we to find something interesting, we would share it, in the most unofficial way possible. And you were right. And we used it. And we shared. You had the insight, the vision and you knew your allies, even if they could not be named in public. And you won the cold war, and your allies remembered who helped. This opened new trade, new business, new cooperation, bringing an abundance of wealth to both sides of the Atlantic.
A different opinion
The story about freedom has similar players. Also in the cold war era, at a point the soviets had a good education system, even rivaling America. They taught the hard sciences, mathematics, physics, engineering and such, and they taught them well. They had skilled people. Then, the government forced these skilled people to their government run factories to work. There, a skilled engineer might see that the place is not being run efficiently, showing room for changes and improvement. Most of them did not share their thoughts. You see, having a differing opinion with someone higher up is not acceptable in a dictatorship. With good luck, you were punished. With bad luck, you accidentally fell down on several bullets while taking a shower. A rather good dramatization of this can be seen in the HBO series of Chernobyl. While not fully factually correct, as expected of a drama, it paints the right image.
A great number of these people fled the soviet union and found their way to Israel, a staunch ally of the United States and the free world. In Israel, these people helped found a technological revolution, eventually making their new home country a true world power in technology. The very same people, with the very same skills, can either suffer under totalitarianism or prosper under democracy.
In America, if you see a way to do things better, you could talk to your boss. If your boss is smart, they’ll give you a chance to try it and if you succeed, give you a promotion and a raise. If your boss is stupid, you’ll leave your gloves at the door, walk out and start your own business, do things better and make a million dollars. That’s freedom.
In Europe, it works almost the same. In the Nordics or Baltics, starting your own business probably could not be simpler. A few bucks, a few clicks on the computer and you have your permits. Our problem is, while it’s really easy to start up, we make it hideously difficult to grow. We have too many regulations which especially hurt growing businesses. We’ve spent too much time writing directives. Those infuriating cookie popups on websites? That was us, sorry about that.
Liberty
Liberty, the great American value, is no one thing. To be sure, freedom of speech is at its core. But it goes beyond the words of your founding fathers. It is in every part of your hearts and souls. You know you can always disagree, with the exception of a child refusing to eat their vegetables. Eat your corn, grow up and then it’s your time. You bow down to no mortal man, no king, no emperor. Every fiber of your being is built on the idea that things can change and improve. Every opinion can be challenged, every solution questioned, every political view brought to debate.
As for politics, I will not tell you who to vote for. It is not my place. Sharing the value of freedom absolutely requires the highest respect for the people of every sovereign country to choose. I might give a friendly suggestion though, that perhaps some parts of your voting system might prosper with some improvements. Perhaps something can be gained with a bit better knowledge of know who has the right to vote, and then building a system to make it easier for them to use that vote. Just a thought, but to me, the system at least in some states seems a bit complex.
Respecting this choice is a key cornerstone of the liberty we both value. For a hundred years, you’ve built your best alliances with countries that share this core belief. You have respected the people of countries where there is a free vote and rule of law. You have been cautious around countries where such liberties do not exist. And you have been right far more often than wrong. Your George W Bush spoke about the axis of evil. Countries like china, russia, iran, north korea to name a few, all share a lack of liberty, a lack of democracy and a total inability to hear the will of the people. The people make a country strong. That is why America is strong. A country that chains their people, literally or metaphorically, is weak. You can not build a strong alliance with a weak country. A weak country can not give a strong promise, and thus are very likely to break it, as history has repeatedly shown.
What works at a small American business also works in the large world. America and its allies disagree. Oh we disagree on taxes, car safety equipment, fertilizers and electrical voltages. But we disagree in peace, we challenge each other and we learn from those challenges. We don’t hate, we debate. This has not just built political alliances, but great businesses, great works of art and great knowledge. It’s never a zero sum game between true allies. We’ve both gained immeasurably from this open minded debate between friends and allies. A growing American company will open an office in Europe, and a growing European company will open one in the States, because it makes sense.
His word
Something else that a great many of us share, is faith. Our churches look a bit different, we sing different songs, but we look at the same cross. We read the same bible. We respect the same ten commandments. We hear the same golden rule, as first spoken by the Son of God. On both sides of the Atlantic we have many denominations, many interpretations, but we are more alike than different. We have not allowed anyone to make His church become the house of mass murder like the russians have. It is impossible to emphasize this enough. A great many of us have held our faith. Oh, there are disagreements, too much forgotten, too little heard, but with the utmost determination I say this: This grand difference between the Christian churches of the free world and the abhorrent perversion they’ve made of it under totalitarian dictatorships is the difference between night and day. We build churches, they bomb them. One can never trust a leader who is willing to destroy the house of God.
As we share faith, we also share the knowledge that He has many names. We will break bread in peace with others who do not share the same church or faith. We do not approach these people with a sword, but with an olive branch. This too is not just a sign of liberty, but of true faith.
Our today and tomorrow
We are truly at a crossroads, my American friends. We’ve both been challenged by powers of evil. In fact, I think we both suffer from the same ultimate evils, we have just faced them differently. We’ve both made mistakes at home. We’ve lost our focus. Part of it is on us, and the other part is on those who would wish to destroy our great way of freedom and our faith, mostly due to greed, envy and dare I say, simply pure evil.
We have been friends for generation upon generation. We can be friends for ever so many generations more. We’ve gone against a common enemy before, and we have been victorious. Back in the 1930’s it took some time, too long, and too many dead before we saw it, but we did. We can see it again. I say this again: our enemies are the same. Your axis of evil is our axis of evil. Let us never lose sight of this. That is the big picture. The petty disagreements are a tiny picture.
You, the great people of those great United States of America, are not our enemies. You are our friends, heart and soul. You are also our colleagues, and our friendly competitors in everything from science to art, business to sport.
With all I’ve seen, experienced, shared and most of all felt, I say this, with dedication, the highest respect and utmost belief: May God ever bless the people of the United States of America, who make true the great dream and reality that is the United States of America.
Kyuu Eturautti
Tampere, Finland