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[wnylib]

32. I am lnot saying that there is no pride among immigrants and their

descendants in being American. I am only saying that Americans are also very proud of their ethnic ancestry while being American.

I was responding to a post that said an American who became a naturalized citizen of France would not be accepted as French but would always be regarded as Ametican.

I was pointing out that something similar is true of Americans. We don't lose our ancestral ID, but still consider ourselves American. And others see us in our ancestral ID and also as American. The same would be true of an American who became a naturalized French citizen. The American ID would be there, but they would still be accepted as French. Or maybe hyphenated as "American French."

Other nations have values and ideas that they regard as theirs, just as Americans are held together by values and ideas. The British are proud of their belief in fair play. They express it in a statement when they see something unfair or unjust. They say, "That's not cricket." Cricket as in the ball game rules, not the insect.

I think it would be much harder for an American to be accepted in England, though, than in France. Brits look down on us as a former colony not quite as gooid as the parent country. I sometimes think of them as adolescents who never quite outgrew dependency on parents (monarchy). The French took a rocky road to Independence from parental monarchy, but did mature eventually into a stable republic.