Proud to Be An American

I’m proud to be an American. I was born on June 14, Flag Day, and my blood runs red, white and blue. When I see that beautiful flag wave, hear the Star Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful, I have to reach for the Kleenex or secure the nearest water pail.

Words like independence and freedom make my blood stir. Reading the Federalist Papers, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution or speeches made by our Founding Fathers makes the hair on my arms stand up and salute.

I’m proud to be an American and celebrate those courageous Americans who came before me. I celebrate those who traveled across the country in covered wagons, beating all the odds to settle our prairies, clear the land and establish their dreams. I celebrate those who built our cities, built factories and established law and order so that we might live as we do today. I celebrate those courageous Americans who came before me and paid the ultimate price for my freedom.

We all know that freedom has never been free and ours was bought with the blood of others. I celebrate those who came to our shores full of hope and ambition and against all odds, made a better life for themselves and their families in the name of freedom.

I am proud to be an American and to know that our country is the envy of the world and that God has blessed us beyond measure. When I look at the Statue of Liberty and read, “give me your tired, your infirmed and your poor”, I am reminded of those who peered upon her symbolism as they arrived on our shores, and wept with joy at the hopefulness and pride that they felt.

I am proud to be an American, plain and simple, and need no hyphenated description. As Americans we come in all colors, we have no official religion and we have no rulers. Our freedom is our most precious commodity, our birthright, and we still have brave Americans standing on our shores to defend those freedoms. These are true American heroes. We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to sit alongside on the curb and clap and wave as they go by, otherwise they may never know how much we appreciate them. As Americans, that too, is important duty.

I am proud to be an American to celebrate America’s uniqueness as well as her greatness. I believe there are few handicaps that faith and freedom can’t overcome. I believe America is a land of unparalleled opportunity and that American citizenship, is in itself, one of God’s greatest blessings. I’m proud to be an American even though we’re not perfect and our society still needs lots of improvement. There is no utopia here on earth. We’ll have to wait for Heaven to experience that. Compared to all other societies ever to inhabit the earth, even with all her warts, America is still the greatest country in all the world. To borrow a line from a famous song, “there ain’t no doubt, I love this land. God Bless the U.S.A.”