A few years ago, I was in an Uber with a man from China. He told me he was not a citizen yet, but he loves America and what it represents.
I told him that one of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, others fought in the Civil War to free the slaves, Martha Washington was a distant aunt in my family. My family's history was directly tied into the history of this country.
But I told him if you love freedom and you want both yourself and your neighbor to be free, then the moment your foot touches the ground in this country, you are an American. You are just as much of an American as I am.
I was surprised at how touched he was by this. We are a nation of immigrants. Even Native Americans came here from distant lands. But this is what we are. America is an ideal. It represents the ideal that a man is free. He belongs to God and to himself alone, not to the collective and not to any earthly king.
If you are here and you love freedom for both yourself and your neighbor, you are an American.
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