Watching businesses burn in France, I think about the person who built them. As a restaurant owner, I know what it means to pour blood, sweat, and tears into a business. I think about employees who need their next paycheck and owners whose bills will arrive even when customers cannot.
The demonstrations in France have involved grievances about living costs and public services, alongside violence and destruction. Those events do not establish a single explanation as the source of the unrest. We should resist forcing the evidence into our preferred narrative. But they should raise a question Americans ought to consider: What holds a country together when its people become this angry?
A legitimate grievance does not excuse destroying someone else's livelihood. Understanding anger does not require surrendering judgment about what people do with it. Freedom depends on accepting limits even when we believe our cause is righteous.
That requires shared convictions. And how can we expect people to share convictions we struggle to explain?
What happens when a country can identify its failures but struggles to explain what deserves preserving? What, exactly, is it inviting newcomers to join?
Our country has committed serious wrongs, including slavery. We should teach that honestly. But recognizing a contradiction also requires explaining the principle that made it a contradiction. Human equality supplies the standard by which injustice can be condemned, and reform demanded.
We can love our country enough to confront its failures while preserving the principles that make improvement possible.
That confidence matters when we discuss immigration and assimilation.
My grandfather came to America without knowing the language. He built businesses and raised his children to love and respect this country. Our family preserved his recipes, and I remain proud of my Greek heritage. His grandchildren did not have to forget where he came from to embrace the country he joined.
That is the assimilation I believe America should expect.
People can preserve their language, food, traditions, and religious beliefs while accepting the obligations of American life. Those obligations include equal treatment under the law, freedom of conscience, and the right of others to disagree without facing violence.
The challenge is not whether troubling ideas come from immigrants or native-born Americans. The challenge is whether a free society has the confidence to identify beliefs that undermine its own freedoms.
When people embrace ideologies antithetical to those commitments, proximity alone will not resolve the conflict. Beliefs that deny freedom of conscience or seek to silence opponents through intimidation cannot coexist with a free society.
We should judge people by their convictions and conduct rather than assuming everyone from a particular country or religion thinks alike. Some immigrants are escaping the very coercion we oppose, while some native-born Americans reject these principles.
The standard must apply to everyone.
France's turmoil should remind us of something important: social cohesion is not self-sustaining. A nation cannot assume future generations or new arrivals will embrace principles that have never been clearly taught or confidently defended.
We cannot expect newcomers to embrace principles our institutions are reluctant to defend. We cannot expect our children to preserve freedoms we have never helped them understand.
Ask a young person why someone should be allowed to express an offensive opinion. Ask why a person should be free to reject the majority's religion. Then consider whether we have offered answers stronger than "because that's how we do things."
The challenge of passing on principles is not limited to civic life. Christians face the same responsibility within their own homes and churches.
Growing up, my questions about Christianity were sometimes treated as rebellion. That response pushed me away rather than strengthening my faith. Questions need answers, patience, and humility.
We should teach our faith well enough that our children understand what they believe and why it matters when following Christ becomes costly.
We must also practice the discipline we demand from others. A cause we consider just does not excuse false evidence. If the truth complicates our argument about France, immigration, or America, we should accept that complication.
My hope rests in Christ. That gives me reason to act courageously without treating fear as permission to abandon honesty or dignity.
The unrest in France should cause Americans to examine what we are passing on. Can we explain what makes our country worth joining? Can we welcome people while communicating real obligations? Do we possess enough confidence in our principles to defend them without apology and apply them consistently to everyone?
Name one principle every American should uphold. Explain why it matters. Then ask whether the people closest to you can see you living by it.
Business leader Peter Demos is host of the “Uncommon Sense in Current Times” podcast and author of Bold Not Belligerent. He owns a successful restaurant chain and is a highly sought-after leadership source expert and speaker on business, leadership, and faith. Learn more at PeterDemos.org.
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