The warmth and generosity of spirit that greeted us surprised and delighted us. And yes, we felt as safe in every party of Turkey we visited as we did at home.

But the most memorial vignette took place in the town of Kayseri in Cappadocia. The two of us, another couple traveling with us and our delightful Turkish guide Aydin Kudu were invited for lunch in the home of a local farmer. He was in his 50s, we learned, with a weather-beaten face that added years to his appearance. He lived in a modest but comfortable home with his wife and daughter-in-law. (The son was away working as a craftsman). They clearly were comfortable, lower middle class people, proud of their compulsory education through the 8th grade. They neither spoke nor understood a foreign language.

After an hour or so of chit-chat about life in their small village, I asked them whether they wanted to ask questions of us. Well, he said that he didn’t have a question but wanted to tell us how much he, his wife and the town folk had admired America. They saw in us a proud nation, a successful nation. They believed that anyone could become rich in America. But it was not just being rich or successful that impressed them. They’d seen plenty of rich people in Turkey. It was success achieved in a country where principles mattered. Where basic values (like his) were practiced by everyone and still Americans could become rich, powerful and good. He had thought that Turkey could one day become just like America.

My mind raced back to my early days as an immigrant admiring my new country. Perhaps it was indeed easier for outsiders to more fully appreciate the extraordinary virtues that by now we Americans so readily take for granted.

But then, his face became sad and his voice lost its vigor as he spoke almost in a whisper. The last few years he saw an America he didn’t like. He saw an America that went against much he had idolized.

He wasn’t confused, he was just sorry. He hoped that sometime soon, America will find its way to give him back the role model nation he and his family wanted to admire. Some nation had to be the guiding light. His dream was still America.

To our amazement this modest Turkish farmer went on to articulate what he thought we did wrong. What his neighbors in Iraq were facing and suffering. He knew about Israel and the Palestinians and the Lebanese issues. This was an extraordinary display of the global village in reality. In the middle of nowhere Turkey, we were being lectured by an average farmer on geopolitics and America’s failures in this chapter of human history.

As congress wrestles with vital issues confronting the basic values, principles and freedoms that helped make America an economic powerhouse and the most admired and respected nation in the world, I wish they could have heard and seen this wonderful Turkish farmer tell his American visitors what he loved about our country. How congress ultimately deals with our immigrants, illegal wiretapping, the use of torture, the use of CIA interrogation camps in foreign lands, the right of detainees in Guantanamo – all these issues and more, will speak volumes about the 21st Century version of America. This is not about being politically correct, polite or wimpish. It is the core of America’s soul. It is who we are. Those members of Congress who care about the precious values that make America would be humbled to look at this modest Turkish farmer and likely millions of ordinary Muslims like him, who want to be our friends, who share our dreams and aspire to the America that can be, when we are at our best. Our values and our creativity are the real power of America.

The Administration keeps talking endlessly about the global war on terror, about defeating the terrorists. The militants, the extremists in the Muslim world are there for real and they are deadly. Yet they are still a relatively small minority. But in fact, we alone are not the people capable of defeating these terrorists. Ultimately, the real enemies of terrorism are those anonymous millions of moderate figures in the Muslim world -- -- like my Turkish farmer -- -- who will support America if only it lives up to its ideals. Military-might alone will never bring us the enduring peace and lasting security we also seek.

That farmer still wanted his America back. He has not lost faith in that America. He sees in our country a lasting beauty that can still lead nations to a better, kinder world.

For the future of our children, we must reach out to this Turkish farmer. We can not afford to lose his faith in America. If we lose this kind and gentle man, we will have lost a great deal. Our actions will have made us a much poorer, less secure nation. We will have disappointed generations and millions around the world. We will have denied our heritage and the dreams of our forefathers.

As we left his courtyard with a small canopy of grapevines covering his pond, we hugged him and his family. We surely share his hope and his dreams. We too love that beautiful America.