Inspiring Women Magazine November 2023

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Honoring the Best
of America
Roberta Enschedé, AWC The Hague, brings American culture to the
Netherlands through shared history and common values.
I
grew up in Chicago, which is a very
patriotic town. I love America – the
mountains, the prairies, the oceans,
the cornfields in August, the space, the
people! There is so much to love about the
United States.
I remember the daylong parades down
Michigan Boulevard on the 4 th of July. I loved the
flags and the bands and the majorettes. I always
wanted to be one, but I was a bit of a klutz!
My mother used to make my sister and me
stand silently and face east at 11:00 a.m.
on November 11. Then she would talk about
Uncle Phil, her brother, who ran away, joined
the US Army and spent his 16 th birthday in
France during WWI. She even wrote a poem
about him. Thankfully, he survived. I visited
many of the WWI and WWII sites. We
can never forget that our freedom was not
and is not free. When my husband and I travel
in Europe, I make a point of finding
American memorials.
The other thing that had a deep impact on
me was de facto segregation. I remember
African-American people and white people
on the Chicago buses. You could
feel how uncomfortable they were
sitting next to each other. There
Roberta Enschedé
were no Black salespeople in the Roberta
big department stores. They
attending
usually did jobs like cleaning
an anti-gun
floors. I remember derogatory demonstration
at the American
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