I consider myself fortunate to have uncovered some years ago my core purpose – my “why I was put on this planet”. I am clear that that core purpose is to help connect people to each other around the world from different cultures, backgrounds, and geographies, and in doing so to contribute to peace and justice.

My core purpose was nurtured at an early age by my father’s extensive international travels. I experienced a bit of what he saw and experienced through his pictures and stories. That core purpose began to reveal itself to me when I went on church choir tours to Russia and Latvia in the early 90s. I remember finding connection with Russian people half way across the globe. People I had grown up being told were the enemy turned out to be people who loved, and laughed, and cried, and sang just like me. That core purpose got very real when we adopted our son from Russia in 2000; it was expanded when I took personal trips to India, Mozambique, and Malawi in the early 2000s; and that purpose came to full expression when I had the opportunity to lead a great company called Futures Group. Because of its international focus, Futures Group afforded me the opportunity to travel to over 25 countries in six years. I saw the world and its people at its most diverse and beautiful. And now I have friends and colleagues literally around the globe.

With that core purpose as backdrop, I consider myself a globalist – I identify first as a global citizen and second as a US citizen. (By the way for those of faith, you’ll know that our Creator created the world. We humans created the USA a long time later.) I am unashamed to call myself a global citizen.

I have also experienced the powerful influence we, as Americans, have on the global community. This is not intended as arrogant or US-centric; but Americans, at our best, can and do change the world. We are not inherently better than other citizens, but our special form of self-government, our economic model, and our indefatigable spirit that seems inbred in America create the context for us to engage in the world. In short, the world needs us, needs the best of America. I have seen it time and again wherever I have traveled throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. When we Americans are at our best, the world looks to us to light its path forward. They follow our example. We should be humbled, not proud, about that. I am humbled and honored to be a citizen of the United States. Though I am a globalist first, I do not shy away from my US citizenship. I am clear that America must lead. It is our responsibility, our calling, as Americans.

The results of the US Presidential election could imply that we are withdrawing from the world. Our President-elect ran on a theme that sold many Americans on the idea that other countries were to blame for what is wrong here; that we could build walls, immigration restrictions, and trade barriers to keep the rest of the world out as if we lived on a self-sufficient island. The American people were told we needed to focus on America now rather than the rest of the world, as if those two things could be de-linked. Nothing could be farther from truth. Exactly the opposite. In fact, I say the world needs us to lead now more than any time since World War II.

Engaging in the world now is essential. Our economy and our national security are now globally integrated and symbiotically connected with much of the rest of the world. No wall can stop global pandemics from reaching our shores. No wall can stop nuclear warheads from reaching our cities. No wall can keep the US dollar from being connected to and affected by other economies and currencies. Markets, businesses, micro and macro economies, and value chains are synthesized worldwide. Political instability, poor governance, extreme poverty, and systemic inequality in other countries wash up on our shores quickly. So, it is in our national interest to engage.

Engaging with the world is also a moral obligation. We Americans can learn much from other cultures, but we have the special privilege to lead; to connect the world; to make it safer, more just, and more prosperous for all citizens of the globe. As we have been graced with much, much is expected of us. From our vantage point with the most powerful military the world has ever known, the most vibrant and largest economy, and a form of representational government that has now lasted for over 200 years, withdrawing is not the answer.

Americans must not shrink from that responsibility. I will not shrink from that responsibility. It is a noble calling, and I will own it because it is my purpose. I will continue to represent my home country and my fellow citizens around the world in the best way I can. I choose not to despair but to follow my calling, because the alternative is to shrink from why I am here on the earth. No single election will stop me from fulfilling that core purpose. I choose to see a bright possible future for me, my children, for the United States, and the world we engage.