The Free Press
Mia Love never had it easy. Yet in an age where cynicism about the United States and its founding had become the norm, she never lost sight of the great opportunities America had given her.
In 2022, Love was diagnosed with brain cancer. Two weeks ago, she announced in a moving Deseret News essay that she would soon die, and used this final opportunity to write a love letter to America. We wanted to have her on “Honestly,” but this past weekend, her family announced that she had passed away at age 49.
You can read all about her life in this beautiful obituary published by Deseret News, a Utah publication we admire. We are grateful to them for allowing us to reprint this lightly edited piece and help it find the widest possible audience. — BW
My dear friends, fellow Americans, and Utahns, I am taking up my pen, not to say goodbye but to say thank you and express my living wish for you and the America I know.
My battle with brain cancer is coming to an end. The disease is no longer responding to treatment, and my family and I have shifted our focus from treatments to enjoying every moment and making memories with the time we have.
My life has been extended by exceptional medical care, science, and extraordinary professionals who have become dear friends. My extra season of life has also been the result of the faith and prayers of countless friends, known and unknown. The result of such humble faith and pleading prayers have been felt by me and my family in ways too numerous to count. I have always believed that faith and science are inextricably interconnected.
As a mayor, member of congress, and media commentator, I have seen the worst of petty politics, divisive rhetoric, and disappointing lapses of moral character by some. These same roles also provided me a front-row seat and backstage pass to be blessed and inspired by the courage, vision, and hope of America’s finest daughters, sons, and citizens.
Couching this column as a “dying wish” felt a little dramatic, even for a drama person like me. We are not certain how long this season of my battle will be, and I do want to share, and reshare, some things with the world that I passionately believe. I write all of this as my “living wish” and hopefully “enduring wish” for you.
Let me tell you about the America I know. My parents immigrated to the United States with $10 in their pocket and a belief that the America they had heard about really did exist as the land of opportunity. Through hard work and great sacrifice they achieved success—so the America I came to know growing up was filled with all the excitement found in living the American dream. I was taught to love this country, warts and all, and understand I had a role to play in our nation’s future. I learned to passionately believe in the possibilities and promise of America.
Watching my father and mother work odd jobs in order to provide for us and maintain their independence taught me valuable lessons in personal responsibility. When tough times came, they didn’t look to Washington, they looked within. Because the America they knew was centered in self-reliance, the America I know is founded in the freedom self-reliance always brings.
What makes America great is the idea that when government is limited and decisions are made closest to the people they impact, people are free—free to work, free to live, free to choose, free to fail, and free to achieve. The America I know provides everyone an equal opportunity to be as unequaled as they choose to be.
The America I know gives back. Americans, regardless of financial status, are the most giving people on the planet. On their own, without government requirement, our people give their money, their time, and their attention to causes, communities, and people in need whether it is across the street or around the world. I’ve experienced this generosity throughout my life and during my battle with cancer. I am so grateful.
The America I know makes tough choices. As the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, facing its own fiscal cliff, we put limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility first in order to create an amazing community that could last. I have also seen that facing challenging choices head-on inspires our citizens to get involved, engage in meaningful dialogue, rally around shared values, do things differently, and change the way government works.
Regardless of the difficulties we may face individually, in our families, in our communities, and in our nation, the old adage is still true—you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you cannot make both! The America I know doesn’t make excuses.
The America I know is grounded in the gritty determination found in patriots, pioneers, and struggling parents, in small business owners with big ideas, in the farmers who work in the beauty of our landscapes and the artists who paint them, in our heroic military and our inspiring Olympic athletes, and in every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, “I can do that.”
The America I know is great—not because government made it great, but because ordinary citizens like me, like my parents, and like you are given the opportunity every day to do extraordinary things. That is the America I know!
What the America I Know Deserves
Some have forgotten the math of America—whenever you divide, you diminish. What I know is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured. The goodness and greatness of our country is multiplied when neighbors help neighbors, when we reach out to those in need and build better citizens and more heroic communities.
You see, the America I know is built by citizens and leaders who respect, strengthen, and serve each other, not based on race, gender, or economic status but because we are Americans! We all have a role to play in uniting the country around the principles that have made us extraordinary.
The America I know will continue as long as each of us simply remember that this country is exceptional—because it is! I know it is! I can see on the horizon that our best and brightest days as a nation are still to come.
The America I know deserves leaders who trust the people and will tell them the hard truth about where we are and what we need to do in order to preserve our future. We need leaders who are prepared to engage in a dialogue about realities, priorities, and solving America’s problems.
When I wrote my memoir, Qualified, the working title was By the Content of Your Character. The American principles I wrote about in my book are the principles that shaped and blessed my life. I have always felt that it was character that counts in this country. The America I know, while far from perfect, is the place where we strive every day to live up to the principles Dr. Martin Luther King declared from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We will be judged in the end, individually and as a nation, by the content of our character.
Preserving the America We Know
The America I know isn’t just my story, and it isn’t just your story. It is our story. It is a story of endless possibilities, human struggle, standing up and striving for more. Our story has been told for well over 200 years, punctuated by small steps and giant leaps; from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; from the bravery of the greatest generation to the explorers, entrepreneurs, reformers, and innovators of today. This is our story. This is the America we know—because we built it—together.
As my season of life begins to draw to a close, I still passionately believe that we can revive the American story we know and love. I am convinced that our citizens must remember the principles of our story so that our children, and those seeking freedom around the world, will know where to look to find a place for their story.
We must fight to keep the America we know as that shining city on a hill—truly the last best hope on earth. Like Benjamin Franklin and countless patriots down through the ages, I believe the American experiment is not a setting sun but a rising sun.
I thank each of you, and all of you, for being part of my journey in the American dream. You and I, we the people, will be forever connected in the cause of this country we love.
In the end, I hope that my life will have mattered and made a difference for the nation I love and the family and friends I adore. I hope you will see the America I know in the years ahead, that you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty.
My living wish and fervent prayer for you and for this nation is that the America I have known is the America you fight to preserve and that each citizen, and every leader, will do their part to ensure that the America we know will be the America our grandchildren and great grandchildren will inherit.
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Last year, the conservative lawyer Ted Olson died after a long career fighting for free speech, equal rights, and the Constitution. For an look back on his life, read Joe Nocera’s piece, “What Made Ted Olson Great.”