WHAT AMERICA MEANS TO ME
I am not an American, I am a proud Canadian. I see much in America that is deplorable, I see much in America's actions on the world stage that is deplorable. And I voice my opinion and hope things change...why? Because I love America.
What do I love about America? I love what it stands for. Not to US citizens, or too foreign leaders, but what America means to the man in the street the world over. America is much more than a country, America is an idea, a dream, a hope, a challenge, and a promise; and it does not belong to Americans so much as it belongs to the whole world. That’s right, America doesn't belong to the people of the U.S., it belongs to everybody else.
America is an idea, the idea that freedom can be made to work. That just maybe a country can work based on the idea that a person should be as nearly free as can be arranged, that a man or woman can make their own way, and that a people made up of just such men and women can as well.
America is a dream. It is a dream of freedom hidden in the hearts of countless millions of oppressed people the world over. Maybe they can get to America, or maybe America can come to them, or maybe even, they can make their own America wherever they live.
America is a hope, the hope that freedom will spread. During their darkest hours the people of the world can always look across the ocean and find hope....if they did it, then so can we.
America is a challenge, the challenge to be free. To stand up and fight for liberty, to fight, and yes if need be die.
America is a promise, a promise made to the people of the world. A promise that in the final analysis freedom will not be extinguished by tyranny and that those who will reach for liberty will not do so alone.
America is not the same thing as the USA. The USA belongs to you; it is your country, yours to figure out and to do whatever you want with. But America, the idea, dream, hope, challenge, and promise that is America; that belongs to the rest of us, and you are only the caretakers of America. Do what you will with the USA, but take good care of America, we have entrusted it to you. You have a duty to the rest of the world, a duty to make sure that America remains what it set out to be. It may be your country, but it is the symbol of the fulfillment of man’s struggle for freedom.
There are many places in the world where the U.S. is hated, yet even there you will find people who will quote Jefferson and Franklin, people who hope to have what America has attempted to create. The U.S. is far from perfect, it is brash and often ugly, and often throws its weight around without considering the ramifications of what it is doing, but America remains what it started out as, a challenge and a promise to the whole world, the embodiment of our hopes and dreams.
When your founding fathers created your republic they issued a challenge to the world. A challenge which still stands today...it is possible to live free. America is an amazing experiment in liberty, it is the only country founded on that one principle. Other countries have come to that conclusion, and indeed for all practical purposes are indistinguishable on that point. Yet still America means something more. America shines like a beacon; it is where the great experiment began. Yes, the philosophical roots are in Europe, but it was in America that these ideas were first made concrete; it was in America that they were first put into practice. "We the people" is a powerful and compelling battle cry to all the people of the world.
Your ancestors made a solemn promise to the world when they proclaimed those noble words that echo in the heart of every free person and every person wanting to be free: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.”
I want to amend what I said in the opening of this essay. I am an American, for anyone who yearns for freedom or who cherishes it once won is, at heart, an American.
