I Am An American
I am an American. Born and raised in the good ole USA. Yes in the melting pot, and I love it. My great, great, grand parents come over from another country, but I am an American. My other great, great grandparents were Indians. My great grandparents fought in the Civil war. Both my grandfathers fought in WWI and my dad was in WWII and even though I did not join the Army or go to war, but I still do fight and will fight for my country.
But this country is a melting pot of many, many countries from all over the world. And will continue to grow and change from year to year…But maybe melting pot is not the right word…A new word came to me from a friend…A STEW…
I love that word for our country. Because even though we do melt down to one country we are still a mixture of individual people from different countries and different backgrounds, with different personalities. We are stewing together and learning to live together as friends and colleagues. And fight together for what we believe in.
We do not expect people to come over and leave their own beliefs behind. But do not force these beliefs on us. You should nurture you past and your past country for your family. You might still become an American. But if you do not that is ok, just do not come over here and try to force us to become like you. And DO NOT come over here and try to take things from us that we work hard for to provide for our families and country.
YOU may never become an American but your kids will if you stay for a while. They should learn about your family and your country but also will learn about ours. And learn to love both countries, if they do not clash. They will learn about our customs and beliefs. That the USA was based upon God and the Bible, and on our money it says In God We Trust.
We have The Forth of July, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day and many more holidays and customs. But many of our customs were also brought from other countries and from other families. That is what being an American is all about.
Our melting pot, our stew, our coming together, is for the good of our families and for others, even if they are not Americans. Helping others to help themselves. Look around and you will see this in every state and every city. Sure you will see people taking advantage of other people, stealing and fighting one another just because they want too. But look a little deeper. Not in the newspapers or the TV news where mostly the bad stuff comes out. Look in the communities where people are helping each other. Look in their eyes for the passion and love of their family and friends.
That my friend is what loving the RED, WHITE AND BLUE is all about. These colors my fade, but they will never run.
I am an American, and proud of it.
Comments
Interesting observations and ideas. The thing is that I agree with you on almost everything and yet living here in California I see none of these values and ideas alive or thriving. When you come here from another country and listen to locals bash on all things American it becomes disheartening and one begins to look to the past where people are still loyal and patriotic to something. I came here loving many things about American culture, especially things from the WWII era and a but later and yet when I came here to work in an academic environment I was mocked and “corrected” by AMERICANS that the era and the culture was something to be changed and disliked and something that was “horribly oppressive”.
It seems through observation that America was beginning to have a very defined cultural and national identity in the 1930s-50s, America was a manufacturing and design powerhouse unlike anything the world had ever seen, the fashion, the style, the ideology was all TOP NOTCH !
Then the idiotic 60s happened the above mentioned virtues all went to hell and now we have some dopey, saggy, fat people who act obnoxious when abroad instead of the WWII era GIs who were the example and epitome of cool to the entire planet. It is as if the country and culture were sabotaged. I always embrace and celebrate the beauty that American culture was, if I didn’t I wouldn’t do pinup shots but I am regularly told by people in real life that the America I like and celebrate was never real but simply a figment of someone’s “propaganda” imagination. The victory of WWII tells me differently.
I say what I say since I came here to make a home and a future and yet what I see is something that is unfortunately racing in a direction opposite of greatness, a country with phenomenal potential heading in the direction of socialism and helmed by another lying madman who unlike the last one is not being held accountable for his misdeeds to a public that wanted to believe in him.
I want to see the land that allowed men like Sikorsky to achieve greatness, the land that embraced Einstein, the people that won WWII. I dont want to see obesity, girth, awful schools and constant fiscal mismanagement. I raise these issues as these are things that need to be changed NOW, they need to be changed to make the USA the “working man’s paradise” it once was !
I am im central U.S. and it is a VERY big country so things change alot between here and there.
Is it possible? I agree with you both! There is an expression that was coined by photographers called “POV” which stands for “Point of View” and has to do with your perspective being dependent on where you stand (where you are located). We strain all our observations through the sieve of our previous experiences. This makes each person’s opinion (perspective) different and yet, they could all be correct!
And remember what all the old people always say. “Remember the good old days?” Everyone looks at the past and says it used to be so much better. "I remember when . . . " (a loaf of bread was a dime) etc.
I enjoyed reading your statement (and it was so very well written) Blazer. I also enjoyed reading the response by Ms. Audrey.
Nelle