A few days ago, I referred to my typically American sentiment to come here to “fix” Northern Ireland with a heavy-handed, judgmental political diatribe disguised as a play. Now that the Fourth of July is mere hours away here, I can’t help but reflect on the meaning of what it is to be an American, especially after meeting Tommy McKearney over dinner and viewing a documentary that demonstrated the parallels between American and Irish struggles for independence. Now, as Kimberley Lynne would say, if you don’t have anything Christian to say, it’s probably not best to say it at all. So perhaps I should talk about what it should mean to be an American rather than what it does.
To be an American is to value community. This is not limited to the stuff of it, but to the people that define it. This is not limited to the immediate neighborhoods that surround us, but the entire, criss-crossing, inter-connected globe.
To be an American is to value truth, justice, and liberty. And when any of these three virtues is lacking, it is America’s responsibility, both in the government and its people, to demand it, not through force, but through discourse domestically and by example abroad.
To be an American is to believe in the goodness of your fellow man, to facilitate that goodness in others, and to live up to that goodness, in whatever way we can, in our everyday lives.
I know this all to be true because, despite being 3000 miles away on the most patriotic American holiday of the year, the promise of America still guides my heart every day while I’m away from it.
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