Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor
Whenever you feel at a loss for your ownidentity and sense of belonging, always remember that you could categorize yourself as an American patriot.
es, in a way, I am a Manchurian nationalist (we did have a state of our own and still have very strong national characters) just like a Greek nationalist in the Ottoman Empire.
But I am also an American patriot. A similar saying makes my favorite motto: Where liberty is, there is my country.And my love of America is not based on locality since I'm a new comer, but something much deeper.
Whenever you feel at a loss for your own identity and sense of belonging, always remember that you could categorize yourself as an American patriot. Because in this vast yet united realm of thefree and brave, it is not racial or ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations that ultimately matter, but ideas, the ideas of justice, libertyand the pursuit of happiness for which The United States of America stands that have given this great country its uniqueness.
America is not just any other country, not France or Japan, it is the shining city on a hill, the world police and the ultimate arbitrator of the globe.
Yet abstract ideas may be very thrilling and inspiring, we are still living in a material world with limited space and resources. We can pack and go for freedom once or twice, but we can not keep voting with our feet forever. Sometimes we need to stay and fight for the very basic foundation upon which we live and flourish. Your teacher Dr. Hirschmanneven wrote a book called Exit, Voice and Loyalty, comparing and examining these strategies. The Anglo-Saxon liberty is like a life, organic, with its deep root in the Anglo-American history and society. Just as virtues need their bearers,liberty needs a strong community simply to exist. It grows and expands, it matures and mellows, it may age, get sick and die some day, and if so, I bet America will be its final resting place.
If freedom falls here, it falls everywhere.I have lost Manchuria, I couldn't afford losing America, neither could you, I suppose.
