Exceptional Letters on "What is an American?"

Since I first developed this assignment as a way to start the course, I've read a *lot* of these letters.  It is always a privilege and a joy, but this semester it has been more so than most.  I'm now going in and leaving individual comments on each of your blogs--look just under your post on your blog for "comments."  [I will try to have this commenting done early next week.] I won't leave comments on everything you write on your blog or the forums, but I will when what you say is particularly good or you are wandering off the mark and writing stuff which won't help you get the high grade you want to earn and which I want to give you.  I will also rather shamelessly take advantage of any opening I can find to teach or correct a misapprehension. 

However, I am getting sidetracked,  I wanted to let you know this class wrote particularly beautiful, insightful letters for the assignment, and you were able to capture the same spirit of wonder and admiration for the people and land which de Creveceour tried to do in the late 1800s.  As you think about your letter and de Creveceour, think about this: he didn't have two hundred plus years of people talking about what Americans are to help him.  He started this tradition, and what he had to say helped to form how we think of ourselves as a people.  In fact, his writing has been used more than once in Supreme Court decisions as a means of figuring out what the founders wanted America to become. 

In reading your letters, one of our class mate's letters was particularly striking, and I thought I'd share an excerpt for those not in Khattar's group:

I also am an immigrant and I asked myself the same questions ten years ago. I came here with my wife and daughter because I wanted to provide them with a safe lifestyle and give them the things I couldn’t in my home-country. We came here with enough money to just get by and with a little hard work and determination, we are now proud to call America, home.

Over the years you will learn that this country is right for those who value a fair and just law. It is right for those who put in an effort to get to know the names of their neighbors and for those who offer a helping hand in times of need. Anybody who’s lived a day on this earth can testify that there will always be times of need.

You will experience in America a prosperity that will motivate you for the future. You will also find that the system here supports a growing population. If you have the dream, America is the country that allows you to transfer it into reality; into ideas for the future, into thoughts of art and science.

This is remarkable writing, and Khattar captures what it means to be an American, that is, not only to live in a land where opportunity and basic freedoms are built into the system of government, but to be inspired and motivated by this opportunity and freedom to make a better living for yourself and your family AND to then reach out to your neighbors to help them through tough times.  I know of few other systems which make it so easy to help others by making yourself better.

Class...keep up the kind of thinking and writing you demonstrated this past week, and this is going to be a truly remarkable semester. 


PS  The next time you find yourself in a conversation about immigration, remember Khattar's words. This nation was built by immigrates, that is, if we weren't already here, like my Cherokee ancestors.  Me?  I'm Cherokee and Scottish and German and proud of most of them, even the Ozark hillbilly, rednecks who couldn't stay out of gun fights.