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Picture of GarandGuy
posted August 03, 2020 09:49 PM
There’s no right answer here. What does being an American mean to you?

Being an American means being free and having the ability to do what you want, when you want.


-----------------------------------------------
What's the sense in working hard if you never get to play?
 
Posts: 1086 | Location: On the outskirts of Richmond | Registered: September 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
posted August 03, 2020 10:15 PMHide Post
quote:
Originally posted by GarandGuy:
Being an American means being free and having the ability to do what you want, when you want.
Not necessarily. If everyone did what they want, whenever they want, we'd have complete anarchy and unending crime.
 
Posts: 111735 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted August 03, 2020 10:18 PMHide Post
It means I have the privilege of standing on the shoulders of many great men who carved and refined the very definition of freedoms as they relate to state interactions. And it means it is my honor to take my place in that line for our children and their children's future. In short form, anyone living in America today has effectively won the lottery. And now must do their part to ensure the Republic endures.


Ignem Feram
 
Posts: 563 | Registered: October 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Just for the
hell of it
Picture of comet24
posted August 03, 2020 10:52 PMHide Post
quote:
Being an American means being free and having the ability to do what you want, when you want.


I agree to a point. As long as what you do doesn't negatively affect others.

One example I enjoy the outdoors. I do a lot of outdoor activities. I think we should be able to hike, swim, and enjoy the land that is owned by us(government). I hate when I go somewhere and I see signs that restrict what I can do because someone has hurt themselves. I believe in big boy rules. Do stuff you can do safely but don't restrict my rights because some fool with no experience tried to climb some rock or swim in some river.

Also while you say "to do what you want, when you want." Doesn't include leaving your trash somewhere, spray paint your name on mother nature, leaving you ass wiping paper laying on the trail.

So while I'm tired of having restrictions on what I can do I'm also tired of shit dicks destroy things.


_____________________________________

Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. Jack Kerouac
 
Posts: 16556 | Registered: March 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Alea iacta est
Picture of Beancooker
posted August 03, 2020 11:01 PMHide Post
It means a lot to me.
It’s a place where a guy with not much of an education, but a strong work ethic and some intelligence, can work and end up with a career that can support his family.
It’s where my wife could immigrate and learn the English language. Find a job, work and have success.
It’s the ability to have hope, and dream, and if your work ethic supports it, your hopes and dreams have the ability to come true.
That’s my viewpoint on your question.
It’s the greatest place on earth, and I am beyond proud and happy to be an American.



quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I'd fly to Turks and Caicos with live ammo falling out of my pockets before getting within spitting distance of NJ with a firearm.
 
Posts: 4665 | Location: Staring down at you with disdain, from the spooky mountaintop castle.  | Registered: November 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted August 04, 2020 12:07 AMHide Post
It means that I have a birthright granted to me by the blood and sacrifice of others, who often gave up their lives to ensure our continued freedom. I hope to live up to it.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16949 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Frangas non Flectes
Picture of P220 Smudge
posted August 04, 2020 12:13 AMHide Post
I've got ancestors who fought in the revolution, the civil war, and were among the first 100 families to settle Texas. I try to live my life in a way that honors what those people fought and worked so hard for, so that it isn't squandered. Being an American, to me, is freedom, yes. But it's also a responsibility to keep earning what so many have sacrificed for.

quote:
Originally posted by comet24:
I agree to a point. As long as what you do doesn't negatively affect others.


Yep. The way I heard it growing up was "your freedom extends to your fist, and ends at the other guy's nose."


______________________________________________
Endeavoring to master the subtle art of the grapefruit spoon.
 
Posts: 18249 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Back, and
to the left
Picture of 83v45magna
posted August 04, 2020 12:21 AMHide Post
quote:
Originally posted by YooperSigs:
It means that I have a birthright granted to me by the blood and sacrifice of others, who often gave up their lives to ensure our continued freedom. I hope to live up to it.

I cannot put this any better. It makes me physically ill to imagine people here giving up on the idea.



I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. -Ecclesiastes 9:11

...But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by Him shall glory, but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. - Psalm 63:11 [excerpted]
 
Posts: 7630 | Location: Dallas | Registered: August 04, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted August 04, 2020 12:51 AMHide Post
As simply as I can put it, being an American means having the absolute freedom to make his own way with the absolute means to keep it should that freedom ever be threatened.


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

 
Posts: 31354 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
hello darkness
my old friend
Picture of gw3971
posted August 04, 2020 05:40 AMHide Post
Appreciating the ideas and gifts given to us by God and our forefathers.
 
Posts: 7766 | Location: West Jordan, Utah | Registered: June 19, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of HayesGreener
posted August 04, 2020 05:54 AMHide Post
I had the great privilege of visiting more than 50 countries while serving in the USAF. By comparison, none can hold a candle to the US in terms of our freedoms, affluence, compassion, and strength. I am damn proud to be an American.

A couple quotes from John Wayne:

On American spirit: “It’s an outlook, an attitude.”


“It’s kind of a sad thing when a normal love of country makes you a super patriot. I do think we have a pretty wonderful country, and I thank God that He chose me to live here.”


CMSGT USAF (Retired)
Chief of Police (Retired)
 
Posts: 4384 | Location: Florida Panhandle | Registered: September 27, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of fpuhan
posted August 04, 2020 06:38 AMHide Post
It means I won the lottery!

I've lived in four continents, traveled all over the world, and every time I return I feel like I won the lottery.

This is where I have the freedom to work the job I want, speak my mind, vote for my elected officials, attend the church of my choice, move about as I please, and raise my family as I see fit. It means I have a heritage that I must pass on to those coming as it was passed on to me.




You can't truly call yourself "peaceful" unless you are capable of great violence. If you're not capable of great violence, you're not peaceful, you're harmless.

NRA Benefactor/Patriot Member
 
Posts: 2857 | Location: Peoples Republic of North Virginia | Registered: December 04, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted August 04, 2020 06:44 AMHide Post
You don't realize how great this country until you see how bad it is in the rest of the world.

I can say and do as I please as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

I can worship as I please or don't.

I can carry if I want.

The harder I work, the luckier I get most of the time.

I can vote.

I too feel like the won the lottery.
 
Posts: 4875 | Registered: February 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
7.62mm Crusader
posted August 04, 2020 07:07 AMHide Post
quote:
Originally posted by mlazarus:
It means I have the privilege of standing on the shoulders of many great men who carved and refined the very definition of freedoms as they relate to state interactions. And it means it is my honor to take my place in that line for our children and their children's future. In short form, anyone living in America today has effectively won the lottery. And now must do their part to ensure the Republic endures.
I know I could not have said that any better. Preservation of what we have for future generations. They must be passed the baton. They must take it and run.
 
Posts: 18143 | Location: The Bluegrass State! | Registered: December 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Legalize the Constitution
Picture of TMats
posted August 04, 2020 08:12 AMHide Post
It means I am the beneficiary of the rights entrusted to me by the Founders and the blood of those who preserved those rights. It means I have responsibilities to go with those rights to do my part to preserve the many gifts we’ve been given.


_______________________________________________________
despite them
 
Posts: 14163 | Location: Wyoming | Registered: January 10, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of GarandGuy
posted August 04, 2020 08:15 AMHide Post
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
quote:
Originally posted by GarandGuy:
Being an American means being free and having the ability to do what you want, when you want.
Not necessarily. If everyone did what they want, whenever they want, we'd have complete anarchy and unending crime.


True. I meant as it pertains to us Americans who aren’t assholes. Those who won’t scream fire in a movie theater for the hell of it. The more refined, civilized class of American.


-----------------------------------------------
What's the sense in working hard if you never get to play?
 
Posts: 1086 | Location: On the outskirts of Richmond | Registered: September 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted August 04, 2020 08:30 AMHide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 83v45magna:
quote:
Originally posted by YooperSigs:
It means that I have a birthright granted to me by the blood and sacrifice of others, who often gave up their lives to ensure our continued freedom. I hope to live up to it.

I cannot put this any better. It makes me physically ill to imagine people here giving up on the idea.


Totally agree!
 
Posts: 1010 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: October 22, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted August 04, 2020 08:51 AMHide Post
An all encompassing " meaning" is well beyond my purview but will offer
an analogy.

I used to think it was like a rope,
You were either pulling the rope when you were able
or you were being pulled by the rope when it was other people s turn but it's no where near that simple.

Being American ,at least while I was going up,
Was like the spoke of a wheel,

Yes there are still times when ,out of consideration for the other 164 other spokes
You are relied upon to provide support by either pushing or pulling,
But for
A very brief moment
you're pushing and pulling are in very minimal but not totally diminished status.

For the wheel to remain true ,it's essential that each spoke be up to its individual optimal task.

only then can any expectation of a harmonious coexistence be imagined .

The hub of this social wheel is important as the collective spoke's

Just as the government of the people is important , more,no less

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable, August 04, 2020 11:06 AM





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 55808 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of erj_pilot
posted August 04, 2020 09:10 AMHide Post
This immediately sprang to mind...




"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
 
Posts: 11066 | Location: NW Houston | Registered: April 04, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Equal Opportunity Mocker
Picture of slabsides45
posted August 04, 2020 09:30 AMHide Post
Not to be melodramatic, but whatever it might have meant to be American... after having served in the Army (just a 2 year Reagan era stint), it has always means more. I lived alongside men who were shot and carried shrapnel under their skin, and watched friends cut down for my rights.

I was once the stupid, self absorbed kid whose own desires ruled my universe, but that changed. I owe a debt I cannot repay to Drill Sgt. Gaskin back at Harmony Church, Ft. Benning.


________________________________________________

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving."
-Dr. Adrian Rogers
 
Posts: 6395 | Location: Mogadishu on the Mississippi | Registered: February 26, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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