Kesaya E. Noda's Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty

The definition of what it means to be American is defined through American people’s diverse backgrounds and the pride to protect the freedom of their country. Being American doesn’t depend on one’s ethnicity anyone can classify themselves as an American, even if other people don’t see it that way. In Kesaya E. Noda’s “Growing up Asian in America” she explains that her identity was challenged when she says, “Sometimes when I was growing up, my identity seem to hurtle towards me and paste itself right to my face. I felt that way, encountering the stereotypes of my race perpetuated by non-Japanese people (primarily white) who may or may not have had contact with other Japanese in America”(Kesaya 32). In other words, the author showed us how she
In John Sidney McCain’s “Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty” he talks about how far one of the prisoners of war that was with him went to show his pride for their country, “Sitting there, with his eyes almost shut from his beating, making another American flag. He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was for us to be able to pledge our allegiance to our flag and country” (McCain 7). McCain’s quote explains that an American would do anything to protect freedom even if it means the ultimate sacrifice. In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, “The Four Freedom” it shows how much Americans have faith in freedom and how far they go to protect it, “This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose” (FDR 45). In other words, the idea that keeps all the diverse groups together is the freedom, to protect their freedom because they don’t want to lose freedom that they