IAM Thinking...What Does it Mean to be an American?

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis

There's the country of America, which you have to defend, but there's also the idea of America. America is more than just a country, it's an idea. An idea that's supposed to be contagious.

Bono (1960 - ), Oprah Winfrey Show, 2002

So I have been thinking about this question a lot recently. It really struck me this past weekend when I was in our nation's capital for the FIRST TIME EVER, and I was being shown around by one friend from Egypt, another friend from Lebanon, and two friends from Iran. What is wrong with this picture?!

My contemplation has further been brought about by a few factors. One--all of my travel experiences and the fact that everyone else seems to have a better grasp on their country than we, the American people as a whole, do. And actually, I feel that many people have a better grasp on OUR COUNTRY (as noted in my previous post) than most of us do. I am not writing this pompously or condescendingly as I am just as guilty as the next person, and I realize that I am generalizing a bit, as a lot of people do fully comprehend and appreciate America in various ways. But as an observation on the whole, I find our lack of Patriotism disheartening. In fact, I feel like it's sad that we live in an American society where a majority of citizens can name the cast of the Jersey Shore before they can name who is in the US Cabinet. But again, I am 100% guilty of this ignorance as well. It is just an observation.

Beyond that I've been thinking about multiculturalism as I started teaching ESL students this school year. Are we a multicultural nation? I mean I guess on paper we are---as we have multiple cultures living here. However, do we value these cultures and the diversity? I guess it goes back to the age old question--are we a salad bowl or a melting pot? Do we value the differences, or do we want everyone to conform to one type of "American"? How many people care to learn about other cultures, and how many people feel that they don't need to learn another language because "everyone speaks English". How many people are guilty of xenophobia in a country where most of us are originally "xenos" or at least our ancestors were? (Is that the correct terminology--ahh--the plight of the English teacher). Additionally, one of my questions in ESL this week is do things get "lost in translation" in a multicultural society? While I think this is possible, I still feel that the benefits outweigh the negatives of this possibility. There may be different ways to express the same feelings, and in that case, yes, things do inevitably get "lost in translation"; however, I think there is a universal language that we all speak, and that completely transcends words.

So I am posing these questions...because they are things that I am thinking about. Personally, I have done a lot of travelling. However, I have made the observation recently that I have only been to about 10-12 states in the US. I spend so much time appreciating other countries, and now I want to start appreciating my own. Some time in the future, not sure how near, but it is definitely on my Bucket List, I will take a cross country trip. I think that this is something every American should do. I think it's time that we stop taking our great nation and all of its counterparts for granted and that we start discovering what it really means to be an American.

This is what IAM Thinking...what do you think?!