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WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?
by Peter Ferrara
Assoc. Professor, George Mason University Law School

     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 I just thought I would write to let them 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 Mexican, African, Indian,  Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navajo, Apache, 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 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.  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 twin towers the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families.  [I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including some of 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.  To paraphrase what their President John Kennedy said in Berlin, everyone who holds true to that spirit of freedom, is an American at heart.

     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 be the first to welcome them!
 

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