What IS America? What Does it Mean to Be an American?
A Philosophical Look at Being American
What IS America? What does it mean to be American? I ask these questions on July Fourth, a day when the United States commemorates its independence.
That date and commemoration in itself is significant in it not being entirely true. The United States did not become independent on July 4th, 1776 — a small group of people declared an intention for it to become an independent nation. American independence was not achieved until the Treaty of Paris on September 3rd, 1783. The Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 was a promise, a literal promise to build a nation on the principle that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among these being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s what the document says. That’s the promise that it makes.
July 4th is a symbol of that promise, not an actual achievement of it, and that symbology, that incompleteness, resonates throughout United States history and into today on the 4th of…
