Unique

What does it take to be Russian? German? Japanese?

I have no idea, and I'm not sure even Russians or Germans or Japanese could tell. It may boil down to you were born there, or you weren't. Heredity.

It might be possible to become British. I lived there for a year, and the people are accepting to a fault. But it may be that they don't know what it is to be British, and even seem uncomfortable with discussing the idea. And while we were absolutely accepted while we lived there, it seemed it was the acceptance of an outsider living among them. We didn't have the culture.

America is different. It obviously isn't heredity, isn't really even culture - we've absorbed bits of cultures from everywhere. To be American, you have to believe in something.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That's America's Credo. Our literature is full of it. So is our political record. Adlai Stevenson said of this strange experiment that is our country, America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.

There are two sentences in the Declaration of Independence that to this day send a thrill up my spine. They are joined in spirit, although separated by most of the document. They sum up what I believe is the part that the rest of the world struggles with the most about us, and how we act. We simply do not know our place:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

...

We ... solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;

Ted Morgan said, in his indispensable book On Becoming American, that all Americans are either revolutionaries, or are descended from revolutionaries. And so on this, the nation's birthday, this son of revolutionaries will celebrate our Credo.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Amen.