What it Means to Be and American

One of the amazing facts of being an American is that no person should be denied the right to own land or property , because as stated in The Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal with certain rights like life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Being an American, also means you have an equal chance at life, no matter the competitors around you and also not based on gender, race, sex, or religion. In countries like India and Saudi Arabia many women fight against discrimination. A young girl about the age of 20 was shot for driving! That's a luxury that Americans get when we turn 16 and they fight for the freedoms all American women gained when congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S Constitution on June 4, 1919. .
             Early in America's history we faced certain periods of segregation. Many people were not offered the same chance at life. You had African American people going to one school and White people going to another. You also had many white people showing ownership of African Americans and making them slaves. All of this led to President John F. Kennedy to send congress a bill on June 19, 1963 offering legal protection to African Americans and also offering them the same rights white Americans did. .
             Going back through history you start to realize and view things differently. That is what it is to be an American. Not because you eat hotdogs at a braves baseball game or because we all go to the lake on the 4th of July. Being an American is about being able to look to the person beside you, no matter the color of their skin, or the gender that they were born with, or the religion they grew up learning, and realize that they have the same freedoms that you do, and to know that through it all we are one and we are united. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.