Well, I'm not actually an American, which is why I wrote, "We admired..." :-D

I agree - fewer respect America today but I was born in London in the 1960s, and for the next twenty years, America epitomized the possibility for rapid change, technology (back when that was an unbridled good thing), and Gracious Living.

It took Reagan to derail that, and it just got worse, more like a collapse than a derailment.

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After thirty years in the US, I did develop a bit of an accent, so I sounded somewhat English to Americans and somewhat American to Britons.

Now I'm in the Netherlands, I wonder what will happen to my accent? The one thing I noticed is that I almost immediately switched back to saying "zed" for the last letter of the alphabet. Clearly I never really believed in "zee". But I still write "color".

I hope to end up sounding like Alistair Cooke perhaps?