American
Patriotism
You
probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but
there was actually a report that someone in
published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to
anyone
who killed
an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let
everyone
know what
an American is, so they would know when they
found one:
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 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
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
the God given right of each person 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
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
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the
best
books, the
best music, the best food, the best athletes. But
they also welcome
the least.
The
national symbol of
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
were working in the
11,
2002
that the
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.