Finneran: To Kill An American

Finneran: To Kill An American

The commentary below came in my email just a few days ago. I did not write it but I thought that you’d like it. Sometimes you find gold in the midst of a lot of junk:

To Kill An American

You probably missed this item in the rush of news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

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An Australian dentist was moved to write an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is………just so they would know when they found one. That dentist is quite a thinker and it’s quite an editorial:

“An American is English or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be a Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole, or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion at all. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, nor to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government or for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence which recognizes the God-given natural right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking for a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was invaded and over-run by the Soviet army many years ago, Americans came with arms and food and other supplies to enable the people to win back their country.

As of the morning of September 11, 2001, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired, your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest-tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers that September morning, earning a better life for their families.

It’s been said that the World Trade Center victims were from 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that sponsored and aided the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself…….because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American”.

Well said Doctor, well said.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.