An American is

[Recumbentman]

Written by an Australian Dentist....


To Kill an American
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.


So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)


"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.


An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.


An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.
In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.


An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.


An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.


An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.


When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!


As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.


The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.


Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
< BR>
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

[AustinBoston]

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

I'm not so sure about that last statement.  (Actually, a number of the statements are suspect, but this last part about Americans not being a particular people hits too close to home).

I was born in the United States.  So were both of my parents.  And all four of my grandparents.  And all 8 of my great-grandparents.  And all 16 of my great-great grandparents.  In fact, I know of no ancestors in my own ancestry to come here after 1700; it has never occured to me to look at that, but I assure you I will now.

My blood has been on this soil since 1620.  There are some who call themselves Americans who have been here even longer, some much longer.  With each passing year, they became less like the land they left.  For a time, they tried to match the ways of just one country, but they could never measure up.  They finally got fed up and went their own ways.  My family has been American - and only American - ever since.

I am an American.  I am not French, British, Chineese, or Pakistani.  I speak English because the resolution to adopt German as the official language of the United States lost by one vote.

The blood in my veins and the thinking of my people is based, not on the experiences of Russian or French or Chineese ancestors; it is based on the experiences of American ancestors.

It wasn't the Russian people who fought and died in King Philip's War, it was my American ancestors.  They fought in the Pequot War; in the Revolution, in the Civil War.  I know of seven direct ancestors killed in war on American soil.  Many more fought in those and other wars.  The issues were unique and separate from what other nations were dealing with.

The defining experiences of my ancestors were not all wars, nor were they all bad.  My ancestors cut a nation out of a wild land, they endured plagues and famines, they enjoyed untold freedom and unmeasured wealth.  My parents endured the Great Depression.  They lived through a time when everyone was deeply impoverished, and not just by American standards; there was real starvation in America at that time, and until the days they died, they remembered it.

My ancestors made mistakes, even as a whole nation.  The Civil Rights Act, for example, came at least a century late; women's sufferage came a century and a half late.  The systematic slaugter, relocation, and opression of the peoples who were here first should never have happened.  The importing of persons as property should never have happened.

But these things do make us a particular people.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  When other nations are in trouble, we will gladly lend a hand.  But when one of us is in trouble, we will band together with an intensity that only 230 years of nationhood and brotherhood can explain.

Our government is unlike any other.  We do not have a government by "devine right" (Royalty).  We do not have a government by brute force (Dictatorship).  We do not elect leaders to form a government (Parlamentarian).  We elect one man to form a government.  Then we put restrictions on that one man, a system of checks and balances that were very carefully defined.  No other nation on earth has a system of government that does that.  And we have shown that we will live by it and defend it.

We have sent our armies to far flung corners of the world to defend other governments.  We have sent our armies to far corners of the world to defend people against bad governments.  Who, ever, has sent an army to defend our government?  Our people?  Nobody?  I will aknowledge the contribution of the French 230 years ago during our revolution.  Since then, it hasn't happened.  If we are French, Chineese, German, Norwegian or Afgan, then why have those governments never moved to defend us when we were threatened?

We have demonstrated that when people are allowed to persue happiness, it benefits all, and so there are many from the outside who want to join us.  We have learned to let them do so (the current sentiment towards illegal aliens notwithstanding).  We have some expectations of those wanting to join us.  We expect them to learn the rudiments of our language, how our government works, and what our history has been.  Because those things define us, and make us a particular people.

I am not British, Mexican, Italian, Canadian, Japaneese, or Mongolian.  I am an American.  And I do not expect others outside my country to necessarily understand what that means.  But I do.

Austin

[griffsdad]

I am an American. I am not French, British, Chineese, or Pakistani. I speak English because the resolution to adopt German as the official language of the United States lost by one vote.
 
Austin

Urban Legend: German almost became the official language of the US
 
The German Vote
 
On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn failed by one vote. The final vote rejecting the translation of federal laws, which took place one month later, is not recorded.
 
From a Proud Irish American

[AustinBoston]

Urban Legend: German almost became the official language of the US
 
The German Vote
 
On January 13, 1795, Congress considered a proposal, not to give German any official status, but merely to print the federal laws in German as well as English. During the debate, a motion to adjourn failed by one vote. The final vote rejecting the translation of federal laws, which took place one month later, is not recorded.
 
From a Proud Irish American

Snopes is your (and my) friend; too bad I didn't check it before posting.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/german.htm

Austin

[CajunCamper]

Very well said Austin. I too consider myself to be American. Yes my ancestors came here from Scotland, Germany, and England and yes I have an interest in where my people came from, but they left those other countries behind to become Americans.

CajunCamper