This guy. He knew the definition of an American.
Posted on 01/10/2013 4:53:33 PM PST by conserv8
I see the turmoil that is sweeping the great nation to the south of me and was moved to compose a web page voicing concern. I got to the point where I was about to voice my opinion of what an American is. I now think it might be better if members of this site did so themselves.
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When I was in my seventh year my family moved to a small town in Westphalia Germany as part of the post-war Canadian contingent. I attended an on-base elementary school that was also attended by several American children. At the start of each morning the classes would be regaled by the obligatory O' Canada and then we would stand and watch while the several American children faced their flag, placed their hand over their heart and proudly voiced the Pledge of Allegiance. Some of us thought that was very cool.
During the last year of the four-year rotation my family traveled to the sizable American Base located in the city of Frankfurt. They had a PX, a very large department store. It was the first time I had ever encountered such a sight. There were isles and isles of shelves filled with almost every conceivable item. I was in no little state of wonder and awe. After no considerable amount of time, there was an announcement over the PA system that I payed no attention to, that to my amazement had a great and drastic effect upon the people all around me. I saw men and women crying, consoling each other, the place was in a turmoil. And then every body was ushered out and the PX was closed.
That was the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
My brother and I were regulated to silence while my mother and fathers' attention was glued to information coming out of the car radio the whole trip home with the only explanation that "something of world importance has occurred." I recall sitting there and wondering why and how one person could have such a profound effect upon so many others. What was it that provoked such a sense of purpose and unity?
Americans. Who are those people?
What is an American? What defines them?
A Russian told me he could spot an American from down the street in the Soviet erra. Americans walk like they own the place. They don’t look harried or scared. The Russians thought Americans were arrogant and loud; but were secretly envious and such self-assuredness.
An American is someone who knows that Obama isn’t one.
Feeling that your country IS the best country. After all the vast majority of us are descended from immigrants. We came from people for whom some other country WAS NOT CUTTING IT - so they left for a better life. Some for freedom of religion, or thought, or political freedom, or to escape the binds of social class putting them down, or economics. If that “someplace else” had been good enough, they’d have stayed. And no matter WHERE you came from, you can *become* an American. It’s attitude that counts. People come because they want a better life.
A great many of us revere the ideals of the founding fathers - I do not think outsiders understand how dearly we admire the wisdom of the founders, and our cherished constitution and declaration of Independence.
Once upon a time, in the Year 1776, the answer to the question, "What defines them? would have been to advise the questioner to read their Declaration of Independence, and you will know what defines them. At least, that is what the Author of that great document, Thomas Jefferson, said of them when he asserted that the Declaration simply reflected the American mind of that day.
To be an American then was to believe in Creator-endowed, thus unalienable, life, rights, and liberty under what Blackstone defined as Creator's law, known by the Founders as "the laws of nature and of nature's God."
Many American citizens continue to be defined by their devotion to those ideas and to the Constitution of 1787 which structured a new form of self-government for preserving and protecting individual liberty.
On the other hand, as the ideas of the Declaration of Independence have been replaced by counterfeit ideas, new generations may lose sight of the ideas essential to their liberty.
It is up to those who understand the unique ideas upon which American liberty was founded to preserve and restore them to "the American mind" of 2013 and give definition to the question, "What defines them?"
A russian friend told me that Reagan brought vast change to Russia through the simple act of looking the Russian people in the eye.
Instead of behaving like their own leaders and looking out over a crowd and speaking, Reagan deliberately sought out their faces and told them that they had God given rights.
This guy. He knew the definition of an American.
“A Russian friend told me that Reagan brought vast change to Russia through the simple act of looking the Russian people in the eye.”
At a party filled with liberals, my Russian buddy said, “One day, will be huge statue of Reagan in Red Square. He destroyed Soviet Union and freed Russian people.” Oh, my! You should have heard the liberal reaction.
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