What does it mean to "be an American"?
Being an American means that you are first and foremost supposed to be a free person. An individual with God-given rights from the day you are born. Including the right to speak your mind, to bear arms and to agree or disagree with your gov't and its citizens. It means you can go where you choose when you choose without having to ask permission and that you can exercise your freedom to practice your religion, unhindered. And it means that you are willing to fight for and if necessary give your life for the freedom of your country and the ideals it embodies. Being an American knows no original color or religion and there is no test that asks you to espouse any type of belief or religion. It means practicing good will toward your neighbor and a willingness to let go of all things selfish and the willingness to help your brother in need. Most importantly it means freedom unhindered. Unfortunately that is rapidly disappearing due to the lethargy and complacency of our citizens and the prevailing ignorance that most politicians play to.
What does it mean to be American?
I feel I am part of a unique culture primarily built by individuals who sought freedom to succeed and achieve greatness without oversight and control of a powerful ruler over them. We are the descendants of immigrants fleeing from oppression, poverty, hardships, lack of upward mobility and opportunity.I am a person whose ancestors gave up everything to travel across the world and build a life that they never had the opportunity to in their homelands.We are a people with the independence, determination and inventiveness to believe that we have the power to fix any problem that we see, from barbed wire to the moon.We became a nation by fighting for every right we had. We, as a nation, were born fighting. We are the type to get our nose bloodied on a dark morning and decimate every facet of anyone even the slightly involved, perhaps even at massive cost to ourselves. Love it or hate it, that's us.Before we became a nation we set out by building ourselves on a set of morals that, I believe, we have tried to keep up with. We have failed often in our progression, but I think that given a good historical perspective, anything we have done has been done infinitely worse by other superpowers of the world.We are an amalgamation of every culture, every race, every language, every culture in the world. We are regularly overcome with new ideas that take root, spread, adapt, evolve and constantly reshape our own cultural fabric. This has helped to make us one of the most technology innovative nation in the world.Our natural resources, both from the land and the people, have made us the wealthiest nation in the world. We still have massive potential and a I believe we aren't quite ready to hand over the torch yet. I think we still have our best days before us.I feel that I need to try to represent these qualities in myself and teach them to my children. I have visited several other countries, even lived in the Middle East. I know we aren't especially loved out there and that we have our problems. Even with all it's mistakes, I really love being an American. I think that there are many great countries and cultures, but I am proud of mine.
Is america a melting pot..what does it mean to you?
do you consider America being a melting pot? America is full of different cultures, religions, and races. Has America change meaning i know there more racism besides blacks, but also in other heritage like hispanic,jews,chinese..etc in america. do they have equal rights like everyone else in America or are they treated differently.
What does it mean to be African American?
To adequately describe what it means to be an Afrikan-American, I think you must first recognize what it is not.A person of European, Latino or Asian ancestry who was born or migrated to the U.S. and gained citizenship.An Afrikan who immigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen.A U.S. citizen of known Afrikan origins who was born in America.Hence, an Afrikan-American is a person who happens to be a descendant of slaves in America because it recognizes the ambiguity of that Black person's true origins. Every Black person who is aware of their specific origins don't have to claim any such ambiguity. Furthermore, the category only has relevance in the U.S. In my years of international travel, work and business, not once was the distinction necessary.
Will America become great again?
If you measure economic success in terms of the standard of living of the average citizen, you will see that America has been in decline for almost 40 years now.If you measure America’s success in terms of its military imperialism, you also have to make note of the enormous national debt that accompanies having bases all over the world to enforce that imperialism.These two things are conjoined. Because we have had almost 40 straight years of Trickle Down economic voodoo which strips the average working class citizen of the ability to pay the enormous amounts of debt that have accumulated thanks to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and elsewhere, at some point it is inevitable that the US will squander its status as a World Power, and some other Power will arise in its place. This imbalance between imperialistic ambition and the economic power to sustain it, has led to the downfall of every World Power over the last 500 years or so.If America is ever to “rise again”, it will only do so by abandoning its ambition to dominate the rest of the world militarily for the purpose of enriching our astonishingly rich 1% even more, while excusing them from the responsibility to pay for that imperialism. If America is ever to rise again, we will have to divert the money we spend killing other people and stealing their resources, to elevating our own citizens to prosperity.And as long as it is the wealthy class that controls the government, I am not hopeful that this will happen. The rich will suck every drop of prosperity from the public, and take it for themselves, and the country will fall. It makes no difference to the wealthy class. They will still be rich…just somewhere else, when the US is no longer a suitable place for them.