ROOKE: America’s Heritage Is Worth Preserving

This post is adapted from Mary Rooke’s weekly Good Life newsletter, which tackles navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. If you have not already subscribed, please consider doing so here. 

Last October, I drove from Texas to Idaho to go hunting with my husband. It was time to stock the freezers for winter, which is something so quintessentially American that it’s hard to understand unless your blood runs deep in this country’s soil. While my husband is a first-generation immigrant from the U.K., my family has been in America since the early New England settlers around 1630.

We’ve been hunting in this country for hundreds of years, and I feel honored to know that this tradition isn’t dead. Ever since I can remember, I’ve cared about my family history and the legacy they’ve left for me to continue. Even before I became a mother, I knew I would raise my children to understand the sacrifice it took to give us this land.

Railroad Through to the Pacific, pub. 1870, Currier & Ives (Colour Lithograph). (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

That trip had me feeling nostalgic and continuously questioning whether America is just an idea or if it is more than that. Many people want us to believe that our country was founded on the value of individual freedom by a nation of immigrants. But this is a crooked half-truth, reducing the uniqueness of our glorious history to nothing more than an economic zone for globalist colonization.

Simply said: It’s a lie.

We aren’t a nation of immigrants, at least not in the modern sense of the word. We didn’t travel here to an established, thriving nation. Our country was built on the backs of conquerors, adventurers, and settlers. Every inch of America had to be tamed by brave men and women willing to fight against hostile forces, wild agriculture, and harsh climates that wanted us to fail. It took a level of grit and determination that no one had seen before to build what we all take for granted today.

It’s been a long time since Americans have had to settle open terrain. Still, remnants of that bygone era run through our blood. This was evident in the disaster relief efforts in North Carolina, Tennessee, and other states hit hard by Hurricane Helene. The federal government’s response was not just lacking, but wholly inadequate. People were trapped without access to food, water, and medications.

While helicopter pilots and ATV riders were invaluable to people in need of help, there was nothing like seeing pictures of men and women on horseback guiding pack mules carrying loads of supplies up mountains, searching for their fellow Americans. This is the real America, the one people ignore when they praise unchecked illegal immigration over American exceptionalism, which is real and still very much alive.

Mountain Mule Packer Ranch is a company based in North Carolina that provides pack mules for military missions. The company has been using its mules to get donated food, lights, tarps, batteries and other supplies to stranded residents in Black Mountain and Swannanoa, NC. This is… pic.twitter.com/A367gP3rlI

— Dr. Clayton Forrester (@DrClaytonForre1) October 2, 2024

This trip took me from the mesquite trees and mesas of West Texas to the Raton Pass in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. This is the land that our families won against overwhelming odds. It’s become undeniably clear to me that America, “The Beautiful,” is not just an idea.

America is a nation. It is a group of people with a shared history and a shared future. It’s the land, the water, the mountain passes, and the valleys that our forefathers tamed. All of it is physically ours. Not a bit of it is owned by our unaffected leaders in D.C., who don’t deserve the honor.

Protect the Homeland.

“Morning Pledge” by Thomas Kinkade pic.twitter.com/JLs26R3VlO

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 1, 2025

And make no mistake about it: our country is still under attack. There is a movement to degrade our nation to nothing more than a service provider for globalist elites or a migrant depository for anyone willing to show up at our doorstep, with no regard for culture, community, or American wages. Allowing our nation to fall to the ideology that “America is an idea” excuses the ruling class for its sins. They’ve spent decades raping and pillaging our legacy, selling it off to the highest bidder while obfuscating their responsibility to the real America.

We can’t let these people win. This is our homeland. Americans have a heritage worth preserving.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com. While I may not always respond, I do try to read them all! The community we are building is one of my favorite parts of this experience. I might even start answering your questions in future installments.

Follow Mary Rooke on X: @MaryRooke

Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!