Hi I Am ______ & I Am An American
Hi I Am Renk and I am an American.
I am extremely proud to be an American.
With all the faults and sins of our past, there is no better country than America. People of all stripes and colors fought and died for our country.
We are not white Americans.
We are not black Americans.
We are not Asian Americans.
We are not Hispanic Americans.
We are not Latino Americans.
We are not any hyphenated Americans.
If you feel the need to hyphenate your title of an American go ahead and do so but in the end, we are all Americans and we are all brothers and sisters under God!
We are a family of Americans and as a family, we have our current and past problems do deal with.
Just like your family, just like my family.
Just like your family and mine we need to honestly face our problems and not hide from them, exaggerate them or minimize them.
We must deal with our problems like adults and like adults in your own family, we must not let the emotions and lack of wisdom of our teenagers drive our actions or decisions. In dealing with our current problems, which are a manifestation of our old sins we must not let the emotions and insanity of the extremes drive our actions or decisions.
We must not single out the entire police force and stereotype them all as out of control savages because of a few bad apples. As adults we know that there are bad people in every profession, every color, every sex and walk’s of life.
Almost all police risk their lives every day to be that small thin line of defense between you and me and anarchy.
We are family and families fight, but families come back and work it out.
Racism and Bigotry is un-American.
In his “I Have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King Jr. said:
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Martin Luther King Jr. did not believe that our countries founding documents were corrupted from the start, in fact, he believed the words were “magnificent”. His just fight was for black men and women to receive their rights under that “promissory note” that they also were “heir” to.
MLK did not want this country to be torn apart or people pitted against each other simply based on the color of their skin.
I leave you with this:
At his acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony — December 10, 1964, he said:
After contemplation, I conclude that this award, which I receive on behalf of that movement, is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
So my brothers and sisters in this roller coaster we call life we do need to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression which in the end will tear this great country apart.
Yes, I am an Ameican and very proud of it.
I will stand next to all of you my fellow Americans and fight real injustices but that fight must be non-violent and non-aggressive.
So my friends I say thank you to every man and woman who serves this country to keep us safe and all of you who serve us AMERICANS.