What Does it Mean to be an American?

America is seen to be many things. From the bad things like being arrogant, but also good things like America being the land of opportunity, the freedoms we have, and the excellent democracy. Sometimes it can be difficult to live up to these high standards. But these standards were set because they are true. Our founding fathers created such an excellent constitution; that is why we have such high standards.

People come here with expectations almost as high as their dreams, which they expect to achieve. And it is possible to achieve these dreams. Take us for example. 10, maybe 5, years ago no one would have thought that a program would have been invented where you do 4 years of high school in 2 years then go to college for 2 years! This is just an example on a small scale of things that you can do.

The government is a favorable aspect of our nation. Our founding fathers created the Bill of Rights. This is a document that has rights that the government can not take away! Some of the most favorable rights are in the 1st amendment. This includes but not limited to: the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of assembly. In many countries today if you disgrace the government by stating your opinion the punishment could even be death, this is also the same for assembly. Also in many countries you can worship only the God that they tell you to worship. We, as Americans, might wonder why people love this country so much. That is because we quite often forget how rough other countries have it. Some of us will go to church, others a temple and others may not even worship at all. We don't see it as too big of a deal. But in other countries there can be serious repercussions for being X religion. This fact in itself may be why many people chose to come here.

Besides the opportunity this country can provide and the freedoms, our government is another thing that makes our country more favorable than others. Our democracy is partly based off of the Roman government. There are two principals that make our country different from the rest. Separation of powers and checks and balances. Separation of powers is why we have 3 branches of government, not 1. This is made so not one person has too much power. The second fundamental is checks and balances. This is so one branch can "check" another. For example, if the president wants to make a treaty with another country, it must first be approved by 2/3 vote of the Senate. This way the president can't do one thing without making sure the majority agrees with him, therefore it is most likely a better decision.

With the opportunity, freedom, and democracy this country provides; it attracts many people each year. Sometimes, if you live in foregin countries, your biggest enemy could be your very own government. America's founding fathers made sure that we would not think that way. By creating a great democracy, set of freedoms and unmeasurable opporutity this country has a lot going for it.