What is An American?

[emprworm]

An email I received:

"What is an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God."

"The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America . Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place."

[Nyarlathotep]

Not to start anything, but what's the point of posting this ?

[emprworm]

whats the point of posting anything? Is there a subject criteria I need to be aware of? Funny how you didn't ask that same question about Bush invading the Netherlands. Now please honor the forum and comment about the topic of the thread. i made a new thread for the same reasons anyone does- i want to post something just bEcUaZe.

[Andrew]

somewhat true, but that can be said for many countries. (although america may be the best example. then canada ;) )

[Dante]

Perhaps an American is someone with an American passport? Or an American birthplace? Or a little bit of writing on their birth certificate that says "Country of origin: America." Or a person who, when asked their nationality, would say "American."

(Or in the case of Bush, "Um... er... what was the question again?" ;D ;D )

[Nyarlathotep]

whats the point of posting anything? Is there a subject criteria I need to be aware of? Funny how you didn't ask that same question about Bush invading the Netherlands. Now please honor the forum and comment about the topic of the thread. i made a new thread for the same reasons anyone does- i want to post something just bEcUaZe.

*shrugs* Like I said, I didn't want to start anything here, I was just curious. Nevermind I asked.

[nemafakei]

"i made a new thread for the same reasons anyone does- i want to post something just bEcUaZe."

Er... that is usually termed spam... but anyway...

[Dunenewt]

America and USA are different

[emprworm]

"i made a new thread for the same reasons anyone does- i want to post something just bEcUaZe."

Er... that is usually termed spam... but anyway...

call it what you want, it is the truth.

Bush Concealing Illegal WMDs In Netherlands? Earthnuker

2 days till generals! M@ST3R STR@T3G1ST

What do you look like? Devil's Advocate

My take on america ExAtreides

[rogue1896]

*sigh*

anyway since you're already paying attention to this emprworm, i just thought i'd let you know. i posting a few of those riddles from yesteryear of yours on another forum. i gave you due credit and all that somesuch so i doubt you'll mind. i coulda just used IM but i was already reading this. :-

[emprworm]

lol of course i don't mind. i hope you have fun with them.

[Nyarlathotep]

Maybe it never occured to them that a Landsraad would corrupt their thread with off topic remarks

Ah, we have found the origin of your current upset behaviour :)

So accoring to you it's the Landsraad who corrupt all the topics ?

Let me remind you I'm not going off topic here, you brought it up yourself, although you're probably going to lock this, instead of admitting I'm right. In advance, no problem Emp :)

[rogue1896]

lol of course i don't mind. i hope you have fun with them.

thanks. if you want to see the intelligience level of the 'geniuses' over here i'll link to the topic. lol. we have more than one female here. LOL! :P

http://www.xenosaga.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=959

[emprworm]

yea, I'm going to lock it. The reason is because I made a post for the simple reason that I wanted to say something. I do not feel it is normal for Landsraad to request reasons for someone making a simple non-offensive post about something. I like to think I can participate in the community without the threat of being grilled by the Landsraad in this manner. My post was about "what is an american"- a question I feel is legitimate given the worldwide usage of the term.

A topic that you and Nema corrupted and brought by inserting irrelelvent remarks that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. as such, the thread has sufficiently degraded.

thanks, Landsraad for ruining my thread.

[emprworm]

i can see already Nema has unlocked my thread so he can have the last word. yea

not surprised (nema's last word to follow...possible deletetion of this post as well)

[nemafakei]

"I do not know why each of these individuals made the threads they did"

That doesn't mean there isn't a reason.

However, posting something without no good reason is pretty much spam, and if you're going to say you do things for no reason, there's no point being irritated when posts are described as such.

"Maybe it never occured to them that a Landsraad would corrupt their thread with off topic remarks and call their reasons for posting a thread "spam" let alone the thread itself. Who knows. But I suppose we could go ask all of them."

What reasons? Because (howsoever capitalised) is not a reason. And if you ask me, a moderator hinting to people not to post spam is known as moderating. If you have a problem with that, IM me. If you still feel I have wronged you, after my reply, IM Gob.

[emprworm]

"Nema Fakei Today at 13:43:48 Replying to What is An American?. "

so much for the ability of a forum member to lock his own thread. :(

[nemafakei]

Excuse me! I never unlocked the thread! You either failed to lock it, or someone else unlocked it. I only posted to reply to your list of threads.

[emprworm]

lol, heh, I apologize then for that accusation, which was false. I do not have a problem with you, only that this thread was ruined. Surely not any type of personal issue i need to advance to Gob. He would probably laugh it off.

[rogue1896]

i can tell you now how it works. i was a moderator at the test forums. if you're a mod you have the ability to post in locked threads. that's how it works, or at least how it worked for me.

[IxianMace]

"So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place."

If this is true, then would you agree with this statement?

"We are all Americans". ???

[emprworm]

no i would not, however, an american is no particular race, from no particular country of origin, with no particular religion, (except in the case of Native Americans), his roots will be in another country, not any in particular, yet not from America.

[emprworm]

i am born and raised in America.

Heritage = Danish & Italian

My grandma being half danish, her parents coming from Denmark, and immigrating to Ameerica. Father was the same except from Italy. Just three generations ago, my family was European living in Europe. To all europeans who loathe Americans, they loathe themselves- their own people.

[IxianMace]

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I may not be fully understanding something, but would that mean that in order for people to be considered 'American', as in coming from one particular type of people from one particular place, they would have to be born and raised in America, and their ancestors would all have been born and raised in America, etc etc? Therefore, no immigration or mixing with other cultures/races etc etc? Would this make them 'American' in the truest sense?

[emprworm]

no ixian. my previous post i say how I became an american. Slamming an american is basically slamming your own kindred.

example: we have thousands of south koreans slamming the US in South Korea.

Problem is that there are millions of Koreans in the US who are shamed by it.

Ho-Kyoon Lee, Ministry Operations Director, Good Neighbors International Inc. Korea. www.goodneighbors.org

"Korean-Americans Raise Money for the Killers of Two Korean Kids" http://www.kimsoft.com/2002/walker.htm