And a travel writer shall lead them.

Really enjoying reading articles and interviews about Rick Steves. Never seen his PBS show, but it's apparently quite popular.

"Rick Steves, born in Edmonds, Washington in 1955) is an American authority on European travel. He is the host of a public television series and a public radio travel show and the author of many travel guidebooks."

Rick Steves' Europe: Europe Through an Open Door:

"...[Europeans] live longer, they consume less, they get more vacation time, they get more of a social safety net. They don't have the stress that comes with being a driven society that believes more in this Darwinian survival of the fittest economically. Time is money in America. We're taught to talk about it in terms like its money. We save it, we spend it, we invest it, we waste it.

There's this whole idea of the social contract: how does the society live together? We are the rugged individualists like Locke. In Europe they have the Rousseau model: everyone has to give up a little bit of their freedom so everybody can live together peacefully and civilly. Part of that is because Europe has been around a lot longer than us, and Europe is much more densely populated.

...There are a lot of reasons for things that we don't get, but we're quick to condemn it."

Rick Steves' Europe: Innocents Abroad:

"My egocentrism took a big hit in 1969. I was a pimply kid in an Oslo city park filled with parents doting over their adorable little children. I realized those parents loved their kids as much as my parents loved me. And then it hit me: this world was home to billions of equally precious children of God. From that day on, my personal problems and struggles had to live in a global setting. I was blessed…and cursed…with a broader perspective.

...In later years I met intelligent people — nowhere near as rich, free or blessed with opportunity as I was — who wouldn't trade passports. They were thankful to be Nepali, Moroccan, Turkish, Nicaraguan, or whatever…and I was perplexed. I witnessed stirring struggles in lands that found other truths to be self-evident and God-given...

Travel shows me exciting struggles those without passports never see. Stepping into a high school stadium in Turkey, I saw 500 teenagers thrusting their fists in the air and screaming in unison, "We are a secular nation." I asked my guide, "What's the deal…don't they like God?" She said, "Sure, they love God. But here in Turkey we treasure the separation of mosque and state as much as you value the separation of church and state. And, with Iran just to our east, we're concerned about the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism."

Good travel is thoughtful travel — being aware of these national struggles...

Travel teaches the beauty of human fulfillment. I believe God created each of us to be fulfilled. And that doesn't necessarily mean to become doctors and lawyers. As you travel you find people who make crepes like they invented them…and will make them that way all their lives. Being poured a glass of wine by a vintner whose family name has been on the bottle for over a century you feel the glow of a person fulfilled. Sitting above the congregation with an organist whose name is at the bottom of a 300 year-long list of musicians who've powered that cathedral with music, you know you're in the presence of an artist who's found his loft.

...Travel paints a human face on our globe, making the vast gap between rich and poor vivid. Half of humanity — 3 billion people — is trying to survive on $2 a day. This is a fact. Educated people throughout the world know that America, with 4 percent of the world's population, controls half its wealth. And most of the world believes we elected a president whose mission is to make us wealthier.

My hard work and business success have made me wealthy. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the freedom and opportunity that comes with being an American. Without America 's commitment to freedom, those teary-eyed Germans might still be under fascist or communist rule. In fact, without America, we might live in a world without guidebooks and bus tours.

Travel has sharpened both my love of what America stands for and my connection with our world. And lessons I've learned far from home combined with passion for America have heightened my drive to challenge my countrymen to higher ideals. Crass materialism and a global perspective don't mix. We can enjoy the fruits of our hard work and still be a loved and respected nation. While I've found no easy answers, I spend more time than ever searching. The world needs America the beautiful. But lately, the world sees America as more aggressive and materialistic than beautiful.

As a traveler, I know you don't want to be rich in a desperately poor world. If he knows what's good for him, even the greediest person around doesn't want to be rich in a poor world. I've seen it…and it's not a pretty picture. I've been in Java, drinking tea with rich Chinese behind designer fortifications. I've luxuriated with wealthy Salvadorans who have speed bumps in front of their mansions so angry poor people — driving by with explosives ready to toss — have to slow down long enough for guards to get the license plate. Back home in the USA , where the hottest things in real estate are prisons and gated communities, I'm troubled by an aggressive business community that doesn't understand that this growing imbalance (both within our country and between our country and the Developing World) will someday haunt it.

...In America , we play for higher stakes. Many believe in free enterprise without government-sponsored safeguards for the losers in the capitalist game. While no one would argue that if my cat has more buying power than a Chilean child, my cat should get the tuna…that's how it works in today's world. You may prefer not to understand the economics behind this, but there's blood on your banana.

...I find the Biblical concept of the Jubilee Year thought-provoking. It calls for the forgiveness of debts and redistribution of all land every fifty years. Rich Christians know God couldn't be serious about this. But debt and land issues are the foundation of so much strife. After taking two "reality tours" through Central America , it occurred to me that perhaps God was onto something. By the greedy nature of aggressive landlords, in countries without safeguards for the poor, it seems to take about fifty years for ownership of land to get so imbalanced that a society suffers...

Spending half our nation's discretionary budget on the military while stripping down our society and reshuffling wealth into the richest families is a tough sell. And it gets tougher and tougher. It requires fear (an enemy as big as communism — like terrorism), a distracted dumbed down electorate, and a narrowly held media. A government looking out for the little guy only gets in the way, so a disdain for government in general (and taxes in specific) must be sold to the populace.

Travel in Europe puts you in touch with societies who believe in good government. In Scandinavia you sip your coffee on town squares where the city hall rather than a church is the centerpiece. The city hall bell tower stands like a steeple…an exclamation mark declaring communities can work together and care for all. Inside the city hall, you enter what feels like the nave of a church and are surrounded with murals extolling the beauties of good government and the sorry consequences of bad government. Citizens pay high taxes in expectation of a high-service government.

...My European friends amaze me with their willingness to pay huge taxes and live with regulations I would chafe at. And, with all the regulations, expenses, and safeguards for society and workers in Europe, it's not a place I'd want to run my small business. But it's a place that challenges me to see how a society can build compassion into its affluence.

Hiking high in the Alps , I asked my Swiss friend Ollie why they are so docile when it comes to paying high taxes. Without missing a beat he replied, "What's it worth to live in a country with no hunger, no homelessness, and where everyone has access to good health care and a top-quality education?" While America is embracing the Texas ("low tax, low service" state) model, Europe believes government can be both big and good.

...Europeans differ from Americans in their pragmatic approach to persistent social problems. For example, in the Netherlands (where prostitution is legal), if a prostitute pulls her emergency cord the police — rather than a pimp — come to her rescue. The Dutch have a decade of experience treating the recreational use of marijuana as a health problem rather than a criminal problem. They've stopped arresting people for smoking pot and a ten-year track record shows use has not gone up. Dutch drug enforcement officials consider coffee shops (where marijuana is sold and enjoyed) as a firewall stopping the abuse of hard drugs. This is where they communicate with people likely to abuse hard drugs. And, in societies that don't lock up marijuana users, law enforcement is freed to tackle more serious problems. Dutch friends are quick to tell me that they believe a society must make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons. They remind me that the USA arrests 700,000 people on marijuana charges annually. And, with 4 percent of the world's population, America has over a quarter of its prison population. The USA is ratcheting up its war on marijuana. But Switzerland, Britain, Scandinavia, Spain, Canada, and many other countries are following the more tolerant Dutch approach (even if it means risking trade sanctions from America).

...the majority of Europeans see American foreign policy as driven by corporate interests and baffling electoral needs. They believe America's Cuban policy is designed to win the votes of Castro's enemies in Florida and our Israel policy is driven by the demands of Jewish voters. No other nation is routinely outvoted in the United Nations 140 to 4. And Europeans find it amazing that when we lose a vote so thoroughly, we think we (along with our voting block: Israel, Micronesia, and the Marshal Islands) have it right and everyone else has it wrong."