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I'm not even American, but what the hell, I'll give it a shot:

I'm Israeli born, and if ever there was a country that its existence relied on its national identity, Israel is it. I moved to Seattle, Washington, when I was seven years old, and spent the second and third grade in Briant Elementary School. I vividly remember pledging allegiance, every morning, to a flag that I had nothing to do with. After weeks of deep thought, this brought me to a point of taking action: I will lip the allegiance, thus not hurting anyone's feelings, or getting in trouble, but still remaining true to my self. To emphasize how big of an issue this was for 7-year-old me, I would just like to share, that I was contemplating, asking to be excused from the morning pledge.

This little incident, probably has a lot to do with the one I had, two years later, at the age of nine- contemplating singing the Israeli national anthem. Apparently I've reached the conclusion that this has nothing to do with me either.

You have to wonder about a country that stresses its national identity at every opportunity, it can grab. What are the country leaders afraid of? Why is a national solidarity so important? And wouldn't a country that takes good care of its citizens, get a natural proud response and advocacy?

What strikes me as most disturbing, today, is the fact that countries make a great effort in ingraining nationalistic thinking in their children. Children are impressionable and if they start pledging allegiance to a flag (aka an inanimate object), before someone actually talks to them about the meaning of allegiance or the deep rooted symbolism of a flag, then you can expect some odd results.

One of these results is the question of "a real American" actually being viable. I was happy to read through Helium and find that our community believes in equality and recognizes the atrocities of the past (which is much more than I can say for my own ethnocentric country). This question is so semantic, and relies so heavily on political beliefs that it's answer is just useless in a global sense. I bet an answer to the question of real Americanism is as varied as the number of the people in America.

Who do I think is a true American?
The sap that buys into this question in the first place.

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