Being an American is a great responsibility. If you think about the actual lottey you won just by being here, whether through birth of by immigration, you are a lucky soul indeed to be here. There are approx. six billion people on this planet give or take a few hundred million. These are only about 300 million Americans. With simple math that's a 1 in 20 shot of even being here. Of course, had we not aborted 47,000,000 of our people over the last 30 or so years it would drop the odds a little, but that's another story entirely.

For those of us who are lucky enough to have been born here, that responsibility is even greater. As an American we have few jobs. One, we need to follow the law. Now don't climb up my ass about the President and the debate over if he did or didn't, I'm not talking about him, I'm talking about us, real Americans. Or as I like to refer to them, the Average American. (I'm fond of that name) As we follow these laws we have at our disposal the ability to change the ones we don't like if enough of us get together and decide to do it. We have our representatives in Congress that we use to get the ball moving, the President signs it, and the Courts uphold it. This is the regular way we do things. Keep in mind we are not perfect, but we collective try.

You have the responsibility of bringing the best of your culture with you and leaving the worst of it behind you. What I mean is, if you are from a hard working culture, continue doing so in America and you will realize your dreams. If you are from a country where everything you want is provided by the state, you might want to move on to somewhere else. In America, we strive to be great, not sit on our laurels and wait for someone else to serve us. We serve each other by trying to be the best at what we do. We accomplish greatness by working together, not by trying to invent wedges where there is not one to pit people against people. We have a professional who gets paid to do that, his name is Jesse Jackson and he hates competition.

You have the responsibility to practice your religion anyway you see fit, so long as it does not interfere with anyones else practice of their religion. This means that if you are Muslum, a Baptist or a Jew, you respect others beliefs. You do not come here and try to make the country cater to your dislikes of pork, beef or tuna for that matter, you adapt a little and so will we. You also do not have the right to force your religious views on us, nor us on you. We celebrate Christmas, Chanaka and Kwanza, you are welcome to celebrate Ramadan, just dont' expect us to, we certainly don't expect you to celebrate ours, but we do expect you to respect our right to do so as we will respect your right to do so.

You might get some odd looks because of what you choose to wear, that's ok, you are a little different than we are, we will get used to it. Look at the Quakers, we still think it's a little odd, but we don't get flustered at them. You will also find that some of what we wear is against your beliefs, well you too will get used to it. You don't have to change everything to live here, and neither do we.

One thing you might want to keep in mind however is that our flag flys above all others in this country. This is not a subject we will negotiate on. If you want your flag above ours, go home to do it. If this is your home now, respect that. We don't even let the state flags fly above our national flag. No other national flag flys over our public buildings. If you really want to see it at your home, remember it's place on the pole.

You have the freedom to disagree with your new government. Be bold, stand tall and tell us what you think is wrong. You might not always get it, or not at least when you think you should, but this singular freedom is what often separates us from other countries. Remeber, when protesting you are not always right, sometimes the majority will think differently. This does not make them right, but some things take time. Educate us on why you feel like you do. If it does not fly in the face of everything we hold true, it will change. But America is like a great ship, it doesn't turn on a dime. It might never turn, this doesn't make it weak, it makes it stronger. Freedom for the Blacks, a womans right to vote, a Blacks right to vote, these sometimes took a war and a century to move forward. But once we decide a course, we rarely move backwards. When we do we tend to fix it swiftly (Prohibition).

Fianlly, you have the responsibility to be a good person. We have enough bad people here already. We have haters, killers, cheaters and frauds, some we have bread, some came here like you did. The fact they are still here is a disappointment to us all and should also be one to you. You should want the best for this country, and the best for yourself within it. But you should also want the best for your neighbor, whether you believe as he does or not.

You are now an American. You should be proud of that name, American. It carries with it the last best hope for humanity to be free. There are others with limited freedoms, some would argue that here in America some freedom has been lost, this may be true. But we have the power to change that, the power of our vote. If you are now a citizen, voting should be a primary cause celeb for you. You might have come from a country where you could not participate in the government you were told to prop up. Here you can, and you should encourage your neighbors to do so also, especially if he or she is a native. Some of us have forgotten the extremes people had to go through to give us that right. You can be our greatest teachers.

But what would I know, I'm just an American, Average in every way save one. I do vote.