Today, We Are All Americans

Today, We Are All Americans

Much like the world declared after the senseless and tragic deaths of more than 3,000 people from plane attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the downed plane that crashed in the Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001, “we are all Americans”; there is a similar sentiment following yesterday’s slaying by US forces of the “evil” madman and mastermind of those deadly attacks, Osama bin Laden. 

Madness, even under the pretext of despair, is never a force that can regenerate the world. That is why today we are all Americans. That coupled with the fact that Osama bin Laden was the modern face of terrorism across the globe.

As Theodore Roosevelt famously wrote in his essay "True Americanism," “America . . . is the world’s first cosmopolitan nation. Our fellow citizens come from every corner of the earth. A small few may still trace their origins to the original settlers, but most of us are children or grandchildren of immigrants. What, then, do we have in common, and what unites us as Americans?

In this age of increasing cultural diversity at home and globalization abroad, we again are being agitated about what it means to be an American. How, in fact, do we identify ourselves, both as individuals and as a people? What do we look up to and revere? To what larger community and ideals are we attached and devoted? For what are we willing to fight and to sacrifice?

Roosevelt provides considerable insight into the answers to many of these questions with his essay’s conclusion that “Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace.” 

And I would add, Americanism is so much more than simply shared tragedy or shared victory.