What is an American

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!


- According to Truth or Fiction. com: This was published in National Review magazine shortly after the Attack on America in September, 2001.

It was written by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law.