4th of July

Yesterday we celebrated the 4th of July. Sarah was very excited about watching the fireworks so we went to see them. They were really nice and she enjoyed our time there.

However, during the display I was thinking about what it means to be American. I became a US citizen in January 2007 and thus I am an American. As I watched, I ponder about the force that bounds me to this land. It is certainly not blood, for I have no fraternal link to the founding fathers or other original group. My ancestry is from Spain and from Mexico. It is not my spoken English, for though I speak well enough, I will always have an accent that betrays that English is not my mother tongue. It is not in the right of birth, for I was born and educated in Mexico.

What is it then, that makes me an American? I actually struggled with that question during my tenure in Singapore because people constantly asked me where I was from and my response was "I am a US Citizen from Mexico"

Now I see that what bounds me to my adopted homeland is an ideal. To me, to be an American means to adopt certain universal principles: That every person is born free and should be free in their pursue of happiness. That government is indeed "We, the People". Unlike most (or dare I say, all) of the other countries in the world, being an American is not exclusively by birthright, but anyone from any place, creed or race can become Americans by beliving in that eternal and elusive goal: Freedom.