An American!

[bfez1]

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 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 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 person 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.

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 America, The Statue of Liberty, 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 TwinTowers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families.  I've been told that the WorldTradeCenter victims were from a least 30 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 modern 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.

God Bless America!!

[stormchazer]

I heard this before and Snopes said it is false. I still like it though.


Origins: As the reaction to pieces from a Canadian broadcaster and a Romanian journalist demonstrate, Americans take great delight in encomiums to America and Americans authored by citizens of other nations.

This piece isn't such a case. The "What is an American?" article quoted above was not penned by an Australian (or a dentist), but by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Northern Virginia. Mr. Ferrara's commentary was originally published in the National Review on 25 September 2001.

(Text enclosed in brackets was not part of Mr. Ferrara's piece as published, but was added by someone else.)

Last updated: 29 March 2002

[GalvestonDuck]

Just to clarify further -- the piece itself is not false. It's quite perfect, as are many other things that are posted here. The falsehood is who is credited with writing it. Like that thing from Robin Williams - great piece, but not his work.

Whenever I (or another S2K'er) reply with Snopes information, it's not that I don't always believe it or don't like it -- it's just that those fuzzy little details bother me and I try to get it all clear for everyone. One thing I'd like to see Snopes tackle is all of Michael Moore's fuzzy misquotes, half-truths, and flat-out lies. But they do tend to slant towards the left on political stuff sometimes. So I wouldn't always expect them to do that.