The latest issue of the Atlantic contains an article by Shadi Hamid about the “American Creed.” “Creed,” of course, is a religious term, but Hamid explains that the belief in citizenship in the U.S. is almost religious.
He said that when he recently returned to America from a trip abroad, the customs official at the airport in Virginia stamped his passport and said, “Welcome home.” He quotes a Bangladeshi author, Zia Haider Rahman, a British citizen, who wrote, “If an immigration officer at Heathrow had ever said ‘Welcome home’ to me, I would have given my life for England, for my country, there and then. I could kill for an England like that.”
Other countries aren’t like our country. You can live in Germany for years, learn the language, eat the food, and yet you will not be “German.” On the other hand, you can come from any country in the world, and you can become American, one of us. African, Asian, Muslim, Jew, Hmong, Buddhist, Korean–doesn’t matter. You become American.
That’s precious. That’s wonderful. And anyone who doesn’t accept that fact is, unfortunately, not a real American.
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