Stars and Stripes Forever

America the beautiful, the land of freedom. What is entailed by being an American, besides being born here or earning citizenship? Most of us utilize our right as Americans to have our own opinions and beliefs on the matter. In my opinion being a true American means loving and respecting your country and the rights given to you. There are an astounding amount of countries who don't respect the opinions of individual citizens anywhere near as much as America does. I think that we as Americans take for granted just how many privileges we are given. But, at the same time we have to be humble and realize that we obtained this land through the Native Americans who inhabited this land far before Christopher Columbus came upon it. I am interested in learning about the culture of the Native Americans and think that that is sometimes lost when people think about America. I think the prejudice notion of an American from an outside point of view is that we are cowboys. I say this because like most other prejudice notions relating to a country's culture whatever stands out as different is usually what the country symbolizes to other countries. Now, I know that we are not all cowboys, especially on the West Coast, but I can respect that that is something that is unique to our country and an indigenous American figure. That's about all the gas I have in the tank for now.