What Kind of American Are You?

Sactodan is asking:

Which kind of American are you?

What kind of American Am I?

I'm a decendent of Norwegian and German immigrants. My family honors and follows many customs and traditions learned from our ancestors, especially at holiday times. But I know little Norwegian and no German. My great-great grandfathers refused to teach their native languages to their children because 'they were Americans now'.

I am decended from farmers who left their homes to come to America. Once here, they settled in South Dakota and raised families of Americans.

I'm an American who was raised with grandparents who lived through two World Wars and the great depression. I was raised by parents who were chilren during World War II. So I was taught to value and not squander the things I have. I was taught how to do without things that were in short supply. I was taught that sometimes we have to do without things we want in order for those resources to be used for the greater good of our country. I was taught that wanting and working for things is ok, but don't let your desire for possessions rule your life.

I'm the kind of American who believes in God. I believe that it is important to pray and to have faith. But I also believe that sometimes God lets us make up our own minds, or find our own way. So sooner or later you have to get up off your knees and do something. I believe that preaching the word of God does not require words. Our actions and how we treat others is usually a better witness of our faith than any serman we could preach.

I'm an American that believes that family is important. Take care of them and cherish them. I learned on my own that family is not always a blood relationship. Love, friendship, respect and years of familiarity can form bonds as strong as blood. Your friends can also be your family just as your family can easily be unfriendly.

I'm an American that believes that America is the greatest country on Earth. Her basic ideals of freedom, equality and opportunity are unequalled in human history. I believe that my country is not perfect. It's leaders sometimes make mistakes. It's people sometimes make mistakes. But we don't let those mistakes rule our lives. We live for today and tomorrow, not yesterday. I truely believe that Ronald Reagan's vision of a shining city on a hill serving as a beacon of freedom for the world was a good vision.

I learned in the late 70s and the late 90s that I could love, honor, respect and support the United States even though I hated and had no respect for the man leading the United States. I never let my hatred and disgust of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton obscure my love and devotion to my country.

I'm the kind of American who believes that one of America's greatest strengths is that our Constitution grants the same freedoms to citizens who love her as it does to citizens who would destroy her.

I'm the kind of American who believes that we should help those who need it. We should give as we are able to help the poor, the unfortunate and those in peril. In exchange for our gifts we should expect those we help to do their best to not need our help. We should be a country of givers and helpers, not a nation of enablers who allow people to live off the benevolance of others without trying to stand on their own. The resources we give to others are precious and we should expect our government to treat them as such. I also believe that sometimes bad things just happpen to people. As a nation we need to help people recover from the bad things that happen to them. We should render the aid they need without questioning why it happened or trying to place blame for the event.

I'm the kind of American that my parents raised me to be and the kind of American who I'm trying to raise my children to be. An American who believes that this country is great because of all the normal everyday people who love it also. It doesn't take great people to make America great. America is great because of the millions of ordinary people doing ordinary things like going to work, loving thier families, praying, paying their taxes, voting, volunteering, obeying the law of the land and helping others when they need it. I believe that America is great because a majority of ordinary Americans will stand up and support our country regardless of thier own political beliefs and whether or not they will gain personally from that support.

SactoDan believes:

But so many among us are less than great. Many are engaging in a blame game for hope of their own political gain. They are the less than great Americans who don't share in the ideals that made this country what it is. They are the less than great Americans who would rather tear down and blame than build up and fix.

He is right. There are a lot of less than great Americans out there. There always have been. But they are in the minority, always have been. Some days it seems that there are a lot of them because they manage to steal the headlines for a while. But as long as the ordinary great Americans just keep on being ordinary great Americans and doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, we don't have to worry about the less than great Americans. They will continue to rant, rave, blame, accuse and spread their vile and ignorance. Meanwhile the rest of us ordinary Americans will continue to protect the country we love.