What is 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 I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English, French, Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, 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 is from 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 man and woman 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. When Afghanistan was overrun 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. The best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.

Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America 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 in the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families. [I've been told that the people in the Towers were from at least 30, and maybe many more, other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.]

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of 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.

So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands, too, will join the community of free and prosperous nations. And America will welcome them!

Are your beliefs and Liberty worth fighting for?

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.

Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't just fight the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So take a few minutes while enjoying future 4th of July Holidays, and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Perhaps we should compare the government then, which they fought so hard to escape, to the government now? Think about it...

Remember: Freedom is never free!

Americans are a distinct people and culture.

Yes, but it's an evolving, assimilationist people and culture. It used to be a British Protestant people & culture (not "Judeo-Christian" as modern conservatives like to imagine). Some Founders refered to themselves, even after the Revolution, as "Englishmen."

I know you've heard this before, but ...

Catholics, Germans, and Irish were deemed non-American in the 1840s. Jews, Italians, and East Europeans were deemed non-Americans in 1900. But they assimilated.

There's no reason -- none -- that Mexicans, Arabs, and Muslims can't assimilate into America over the coming decades.

If we can go from being a Protestant nation, to a Christian nation, to a Judeo-Christian nation, there's no reason we can't become a Judeo-Christian-Islamic nation. It can happen. It likely will happen. And I have no problem with that. None.

How common was this kind of attitude among the immigrants of 100 years ago, do you suppose?

Probably as common as today, it not more so. A 100 years ago the new arrivals certainly had their share of violent anarchists, communists, agitators, bomb throwers, criminals (organized and otherwise), and even terrorists.

Wasn't President McKinley assassinated by an immigrant anarchist? (If not, there were plenty of other violent acts committed by immigrant anarchists). And what of the Italian and Jewish mobs? And Sacco and Vanzetti? And the 1920s Red Scare (which was largely aimed at new immigrants, with some good reason)?

And the Anglo-Saxon Americans threw their hands up, and with all honesty and good intention, expressed the same panic as you.

But most new immigrants were not violent, and they assimilated and learned to love America. Today's new arrivals will too.

You're right about one thing, there's no sealing the borders, no stopping the flow. Bush won't. He's even gone bilingual.

Neither the GOP nor Dems will seal the borders. The Greens and Libertarians wouldn't. Only the Constitution and Reform parties suggest they might -- and how successful are they? Even Browne beat Phillips.

Ironically, Russian Jewish immigrants (several hundred thousand, I think, mainly in NY and LA) may be more intent on keeping out Arabs and Muslims than are native born Americans -- but while limiting immigration may be politically difficult, imposing racial/religious barriers on immigration is politically "beyond the pall."

Still, I think most immigrants will assimilate, as always. I live in LA, and you'd be surprised at all the Latinos that WANT to be American and learn English. Plenty.

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