The Real American
Pittsfield, Feb 2008
The real American …when we think of this, we usually think of military people..soldiers..and that’s valid…but most people today are not soldiers….most of you will not be soldiers… and I’m not sure that’s how we want the world to think of as the typical American..someone with a gun in his or her hand. The real American..the greatest Americans’ names…will not be on CNN tonight and most will never make it into a history book.
Irene…92..never missed voting in an election… Iraq had a higher percentage of people vote. Salt and Pepper shakers… “I’m going to collect people.” Irene, at 92, is still working to make our country better. Irene is a real American.
The richest man I ever new personally.. named Martin.. April 15… tax day..”the proudest day of my life”
Drew Snodgrass… teach for America… poorest schools in America.. Mississippi… purposely eats in the black restaurants.
Matthew… Family trip to Colorado when he was young.. saw homeless for the first time. 10 years old? He’s now 22 and it’s bothered him ever since. Matthew. Got his BA from Illinois College, went to the University of Delaware to get his Masters, and will now be entering law school in Texas. One goal: to enter politics and make a difference for the underprivileged of America. Matt’s only 22, but he’s a real American.
Heidersheidts… run a small melon and flower market… Neither ever served in a war, but just before Memorial Day they search the local cemeteries for graves of veterans with no decoration, and take flowers from their roadside stand and put on each grave.
Erich… Youth center..abandoned building
Joanna Caldwell….African American lady from Jacksonville… Saturday’s kids
Most of the people I mentioned aren’t giving speeches and attending memorial services draped with American flags. Most are out there doing something. J.F.Kennedy.. “Ask not what America can do for you. Ask what you can do for America.”
And real Americans are around here too… A man stood up at a meeting in Griggsville and started the movement for the land grant college system…U of I, etc. A man stood in a church yard in Perry …3 time candidate for U.S. President and made one of the most famous speech in American history… William Jennings Bryan A fellow went down to the Valley City area and picked up his friend Abraham Lincoln, brought him to Pittsfield where he continued his campaign on the town square. When Lincoln looked for personal secretaries, he got them from right here in Pittsfield.. Hay and Nicolay
John McWhety…an ABC news correspondent was killed Thursday. He gave the commencement speech at his alma mater last spring. He said, “It is not unpatriotic to question your country. It is unpatriotic not to question your country.” We need to constantly cleanse our country with the question of “Why.”
I grew up in the sixties… Kept seeing a bumper sticker, “America, right or wrong.” Does that make sense? How about “If America’s wrong, let’s change it?” Drew is trying to make a difference for a group of black 3rd-graders in Mississippi, Matt genuinely believes we have the resources to take all the homeless off the streets, Joanna is getting rid of hunger in Jacksonville one child at a time, Erich’s youth center was filled with kids last night, and Irene will be voting for a President this November.
Most countries are very concerned with keeping things they way they are. This summer: group to Ireland, Scotland and England… monuments.. they have a stake in keeping things they way they are. France: a governmental organization to protect the language. America has always lead the world because we’ve been about change. But it’s a constant fight. There are always those who think we can move ahead by keeping things the same.. the same color of people, the same immigration laws, the same attitudes toward poverty. The world’s two fastest growing economies right now: China and India. Do you think it’s a coincidence that they are the two fastest-changing countries in the world?
Been asked by the Mount Rushmore National Monument organization to write a play about the four men up there.. Presidents Roosevelt, Jefferson, Washington and Lincoln. Been reading a great deal about them.. One conclusion… they’re each one of a kind. You and I won’t be called to be one of them… but we are called upon to be The Real American… we need more those anyway.
One year ago I stood in 8 degree weather for four hours in front of the old state capital in Springfield to hear Barack Obama announce his bed for the Presidency. Streets clogged with satellite trucks..NBC, CBS, CNN. I’d stayed all night in the same hotel as Oprah and George Clooney. The coldest I’ve been in my life. Walked by a Channel Twenty reporter interviewing an elderly couple who were standing shivering on the sidewalk..asked why they’d come. “Because we’re Americans. This is important.”
I’m not asking you today to be famous Americans. I’m not asking you to become rich or well-known Americans. I’m asking you to become Real Americans. Ask questions…change things….do something.
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