The Endeavour

I am an American. .  .I think.

Recently, I have learned a few disturbing things that I was unaware of about myself.  Apparently, because I think differently, or have different opinions about things when compared to others, I, sadly, am not a Patriot; I am Un- American, and a Liberal Fascist.  I was even told that if I continued to think the way I did that it might be good if I relocated to a Country that also thought the same way.

I was completely taken unaware by this revelation.  All this time I assumed I was an American.  I mean, I was born in a hospital in Seattle, Washington; which is an American State.  I even have a birth certificate to prove it.  (I am told that even that isn’t proof enough)

So, what have I been all these 41 years?

I decided to look into my heritage and find out for sure.  Common thinking has said that we are who are Ancestors were.  That all the things they did were to be honored and cherished and folded into the fabric of what makes us, well, us.  So, fortunately, before all this new information came out about my un-American-ness, I had already begun to take inventory of my ancestral past.  I was shocked at what I found.

I started with a DNA test.  This would place my genetic markers to a particular place and time in Earth’s history.  It turns out that my genetic beginnings started in what is now Scandinavia around 25,000 years ago right after the last great ice age.  Well, this wasn’t a good start.  Maybe I am not an American after all.  So, I dug into my more recent past.  I got started with a Family Tree, beginning with me and working my way back as far as I could go until I ran out of information on each family line. What I found was astonishing.

1. I am directly related to John Alden.  Yeah, the barrel maker and ships carpenter for the Mayflower.  That also means I am related to the second President of the United States, John Adams.  We were on the same ancestral line it seems.
2. Some German Ancestors came over on a ship called the Robert & Alice in 1740 as indentured laborers in Pennsylvania.  Then, one of them fought in the Revolutionary war of Independence.  Heck, several others fought as well.  I have seen their Pension records.
3. I can be buried, if I want, in a Pioneer Family Graveyard in Oregon.  I am directly related to folks who came here on a Wagon Train on the Oregon Trail.
4. I also found Civil War vets who fought for the Union, World War 1 Draft cards, and World War 2 records. (Both Grandfathers were in the Pacific), Southern Preachers, landowners, bankers, miners, gobs of farmers, and more recent immigrants. (Norway being a big genetic contributor).

Imagine my relief when I saw just how embedded into the weave of the American blanket I found myself.  I can only imaging that EVERYONE who was born in America has a similar history.  Every naturalized citizen has a similar back story as well. 

From what I read about the origins of the Country, these were the things that made us all Citizens of a free nation.  Those who built this country worked very hard to make sure we were all treated fairly with equality under the rule of law. (Well, almost all of us.  Women and Non-whites eventually were given the same rights).

So now that I have traced my roots and found that I am firmly a part of what makes America Home of the Brave and Land of the Free, what on earth were those people talking about?  Why would they insist that I wasn’t a “true” American just because I disagreed with them?  Well, at least I know that those folks are entitled to that opinion, no matter how crazy it sounds, because as an American with full rights and privileges, I make certain that their rights and equal treatment under the law are never infringed.  AND, since they, like me, are one in the same, I expect them to extend to me the very same treatment I strive to extend to them.

We are Americans, one and the same.  E Pluribus Unum.

-MRC