Feel-Good Friday: Amazon delivery driver edition

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Despite recent polling, don’t let anyone tell you that patriotism is dead in America. One recent gesture by an Amazon delivery driver showed a couple that respect for the flag is alive and well.

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Tom and Jenni Dexter of Saginaw, Michigan are a military family. Recently they were moved to tears after watching their Ring doorbell camera video of a delivery to their home. It went viral after the family posted the video.

The driver, Delawrence Jones, is seen on the video walking up the couple’s driveway. He looks up at the flag as he passed it. Then he walked on toward the front door. He left the delivery there and began walking back to his van. He stopped at the flag and straightened it out after it became twisted by the wind around the flagpole. Then he stepped back and saluted the flag before continuing on his way. The gesture brought tears to the couple.

“We were brought to tears by it,” Jenni told the Daily News. “He was showing respect to the flag, to us and America.”

It was such a heartwarming moment that they decided to share it with the world on social media.

The next thing you know, Jones and the Dexters were invited to be interviewed by Fox and Friends. Jones explained that it was a spur-of-the-moment gesture and it was “just me being me.” Showing his pride in and love of his country is normal behavior for him. “I’ve done it before. I will continue to do it,” he said.

That’s enough to warm anyone’s heart, especially after some recent polling that shows values like patriotism are falling out of favor with Americans.

The Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found that just 38% of Americans say patriotism is “very important” to them, down from 70% who said the same in 1998.

Slightly more Americans (39%) placed the same importance on religion, down from 62% who said faith was “very important” to them 25 years ago.

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The results of the poll are shocking. The only value that has grown is money. Money is called “very important” by 43% of Americans compared to 31% who gave the same answer in 1998.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who worked on the 2019 survey for the Journal and NBC News, told the paper that Monday’s poll “paints a new and surprising portrait of a changing America.”

“Perhaps the toll of our political division, COVID, and the lowest economic confidence in decades is having a startling effect on our core values,” he added.

Americans rank money as more important than religion, community involvement, having children, and patriotism. Has Bidenflation caused us all to solely focus on finances?

Only 23% of Americans under 30 said patriotism was very important, compared to 59% of seniors 65 and older. I blame America’s progressive and socialist teachers who are propagandizing students in school. The Blame America First mantra is strong on school campuses. Of course there are those who blame conservatives for their lack of patriotism.

But for Janet Boyer, a former Pentecostal minister in Cumberland Township, Pa., patriotism has taken on a political connotation.

“For me, patriotism has turned into right-wing nationalism,’’ said Boyer, ​52, who supported President Biden in 2020.

“Right-wing nationalism.” Right. At least she didn’t say white supremacy.

Tom said he watched Jones straighten the flag and salute it from down the street as he approached his house. He got choked up and when he got home he looked at the doorbell camera video to make sure it was really what he saw. Then he showed the video to his wife and she was choked up, too.

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Eleven members of Jenni’s family have served in the military.

“We can feel it in the country that patriotism is down,” she said. “It was just a little thing that he did, but it was huge.

“And if we can all do little things like this — like Delawrence did — I think it could make a difference.”

Small gestures can make a big difference in the lives of others. This is just a nice feel-good story with a patriotic undertone, which is sorely needed these days. It gives us hope that all is not lost.

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