Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s ‘St. Matthew’s Passion’ on a ukulele. Your tabloid missed a small, but significant story in the rush of news, according to the local morning coffee group. There was actually a report that a Fanatic in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American. Finding an American ought not to be challenging.
It is acknowledged that an American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American is Christian, or could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the right of each person to pursue happiness.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.
So Mr. or Mrs. Fanatic you can try to kill an American if you must. But, in doing so you would be killing yourself. Americans are not a specific people from a precise place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom.
And that is all I have to say.
Tom Fakehany