Pros And Cons Of Being An American

When asked the question “what is an american?”, almost every single person would provide a different answer. This question is very open ended, and there are infinite possibilities for a response. Being an american is not something that can be decided by a few physical criterion, it is something more. To be an american is, according to Patricia Fernandez, “a state of mind,” based on a person’s beliefs rather than their tangible features. Therefore, I believe that an American is someone who considers America to be their home, believes in freedom and equality for all people regardless of race, social status, gender, or ethnicity, and is loyal and supportive to the United States.

To start with, to be an American I believe that one must have spent some time living in the United States. America must be considered one’s home, whether he or she was born here, raised here, or brought here. Throughout the various anthems and poems about the United States, a continued theme is the idea that America truly is the home of the Americans. For example in “The Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key, multiple lines include the usage of the word “home”, namely a repeated line “O’er the land of
Americans are people who are accepting of every race and religion, and believe that all men are equal under the eyes of the law. This belief is a staple to American culture and is vital to our nation as a whole. For example, in the anthem “My country ‘tis of Thee” by Samuel Francis Smith, multiple lines continue to repeat the idea that America believes in freedom under the law to do as one pleases and live as he or she would like. The anthem calls America the “sweet land of liberty” and proclaims “let freedom ring!” This anthem shows that Americans truly believe in freedom and equality for everyone, and that the ideas of liberty are essential to the functioning of our