What does it mean to be an American? Statesmen, poets, and politicians have pondered this question, and for years intellectuals and even average citizens have tried to pry into the meaning of being American. This highly subjective question resonates in a different way for me than it does for many of my classmates. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, an American is “a native or citizen of the United States”. According to history books, talk show personalities, and political analysts, being an American means that a person has all of the rights granted to citizens of the United States of America under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Though both of these would fall into the standard definition of an American is, for my family
