[thackney]

For me, I’m an American.

Other labels defining what type of American just try to diminish “American”.

Cheers.

[GBA]

As an emotional truth, in addition to being a legal understanding of inheritance, the purity of the natural born definition, seems to function as a sort of human universal trait.

You can see it with Texans or for those from NYC or Jersey, for example, or with those in many parts of what was called "The South" once upon a time.

I've spent a lot around the hard core Irish and it's the same sort of thing with them, too, and not just on St. Patty's day.

Therefore, I can't deny the emotional truth of divided allegiance or loyalty, either.

The reality of that truth and of those emotions can even motivate a careful or fearful people to overrule legality, which explains the "unexplainable" such as during WWII when both Japanese and German Americans were moved to internment camps.

I wonder if those emotional truths were even more important and compelling for those first Americans, given their fledgling status as compared to the much stronger powers around them?