Patricia A. Gourley-Biggs

June 29, 2003

ENG 608

Assignment #2

What does it mean to be an American?

The Fourth of July is Independence Day for America. What does this really mean to me? I decided to really think about what it means to be an American. I found that I was overwhelmed by the idea of it. I began to think is it the red white and blue flag, free speech, cheap French fries, private property, mobility, the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry and raise children. Is free press, freedom of religious choice, the right to vote, the right to bear arms, the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War part of being an American. Then I thought is WWI and WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, the war in Iraq, the right to a free and appropriate education for students with disabilities, and on and on.

I finally began to think that to explain what it really means to be an American is to go back to the beginning. Why was this Country formed as a democracy and the Constitution written by so many who sought refuge? America was formed as a Democracy for all of these underlying principles and more. To be an American is to be someone who wishes to have all of the above freedoms and be willing to defend those freedoms if there is ever a need whether by public debate, casting a vote, or voluntarily fighting a war.

A few years ago the Register Guard (Tuesday, July 4, 2000) ran a front-page edition that contained two articles side by side. The first article ran headlines declaring "Mexico erupts in celebration of transition". Mexico had just had one of the most incredible elections in its history and for that matter the world. Mexico who has a past of using violence and revolution to change or transfer power was now peacefully transferring power from one political organization to another. This seems rather benign if it weren’t for the fact that Mexico has had the same ruling political organization for seventy-one years, "the world’s longest ruling party" as stated by the Register Guard. To me this fact seems almost inconceivable that one political organization had so much power and control to rule Mexico and the Mexican people for so long.

I find myself complaining that it’s another election year approaching us Americans at an accelerated and roller coaster pace. However, I find myself being very thankful that I am an American and have the right to vote another political party into office or out of office. In or out of unison with the rest of the American voters who also cast their individual vote. We cast our votes to choose the best political candidate demonstrating that their interests remain firm in what’s best for all American citizens. For the Mexican people, who have been subjected to a monocracy of one political party governing for seventy-one years, this type of choice is new and stirring.

The second article stated "California soon to be without a racial majority" by the AP taken from the New York Times. The article declared that "between now and July 1, 2001…California will become the first big state in the nation in which non-Hispanic whites are officially no longer a majority." The article stated that "California will become the largest proving ground for what it may eventually be like to live in a United States in which no one racial or ethnic group predominates."

I say hooray, this is the time to really prove what our forefathers were trying to say with the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence. To me a pluralistic country should be just that, pluralistic and display that diversity in its political system where everyone has a vote and a say about the government system that we support. This is really what it means to be an American, proving what the Declaration of Independence says by our actions and our free choice to vote in or out a political party of our choice every one, two, or four years not after seventy-one years as Mexico has recently experienced.

I found in the "Ann Landers" section of the Register Guard (July 4, 2000) a letter that she received from one of her readers, reprinted for the Fourth of July. The letter discussed the fact that all "56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence suffered many hardships after completing the document". The article stated that: "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 who served 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 pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. What kind of men were these revolutionaries? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers and plantation owners. All were men of means and well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing that the penalty would be death if they were captured…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…so take a few minutes and silently thank these patriots for their heroic contributions…it is not to much to ask for the price they paid…freedom is never free." To me, this really is what it means to be an American, to value liberty and freedom over everything and be willing to risk all to defend and protect our American rights.