Happy Fourth of July: on being American

Embracing the idea that happiness can be pursued, as an activity enshrined in our national identity

You can’t win people’s hearts and minds if all you do is trash their national identity and ask them to accept an identity cooked up in a graduate seminar.

Since my mother passed away, I’ve been thinking a lot about what differentiates me from her. She spent most of her life in America, 60 out of 80 years and yet she had an ability to accept her fate that was most un-American.

She once said to me, we all knew my mother loved my brother best and we didn’t have a problem with it. I don’t know why you are so mad about my preferring your brother to you.

Or something like. I don’t know why you are so mad that I treat your brother and sister differently from the way I treat you.

Well, because I’m American I wanted to say to her and I believe in equality.