What Is To Be An American

The traditional concept of being an American is to be a citizen of the United States of America; however, I prefer the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of the word American, which is “a person born, raised, or living in the United States.” This definition more accurately captures the true idea behind what it is to be an American in a number of ways. The first is the fact that it does not include being a citizen, which pays heed to the origins of America where people were seeking out a new land, one of opportunity and freedom, the first people to pursue the American Dream. Today the idea of being American is too often skewed with being a super patriotic “true blooded American,” which is used as justification for chastising the “unamericans,”