What does it mean to you to be an American?

to me being an american in my opinion means that i live in the best country in the world and the most just and free one too

saying i am an american fills me with pride

To me it meant living a lie...

Just like most of the answerers here I was thinking how great America was until I travelled abroad. We all pat each other on the back and tell each other how fantastic and free we are but we're no more or less free than most other nations. The difference is that the dollar is the world reserve currency so we do have one extra freedom - the freedom to sit on our a**es and consume stuff made in other countries. We have let our manufacturing base erode, we are living beyond our means, we are massively in debt. Any country that does not play the game (Iran, Guetemala, Venezuela, the list is so long, just do a search for 'US military intyerventions') gets a regime change courtesy of the CIA or America's massively overfunded military (paid for by the hard work of people in factories world wide).

My wife and I now live in Italy and it is a much more relaxed place where people are freer to express their opinion without fear of offending the conservative, up tight sensibilities of a conservative populous. A place where consumerism isn't so disgustingly rampant, people don't stuff fast food down their gullets and become obese whilst repeating how great they are.

That's my opinion and it's a great shame. There are many memories that I love and cherish but these are over shadowed by militarism and consumerism.

First, Last and Always, it means FREEDOM.

To me, being an American means having the freedom to go where I want, think what I want, say what I want and live how I want as so long as my freedom's don't infringe on anyone else's.

It means having the freedom to fail or succeed by ones own merits... and the freedom to try again if one should fail.

It means having the freedom to believe (or not) in whatever God one so chooses.

It means having the freedom to live your life without fear of persecution.

But all of these freedoms also require a responsibility to see that ALL people have the same freedoms.

It means enjoying your freedom to do whatever you want without having to explain to another person or attempting to justify that either--while the only payment there is for it, is to not infringe on the rights of other persons, who follow the law, to think, believe, pray, live as they choose.

It's very simple; Americans respect differences as a primary value, and this is what establishes the peace. We are not all the same and we never will be.

The Bill of Rights creates that understanding within the law.

I will use the Yahoo! Answers forum as the most honest example of what it means. So many different opinions being expressed from all over the political Spectrum, with all of the name-calling and apparent hatred being spewed. Yet nobody is being arrested, imprisoned or executed just for speaking their mind. This is true freedom and the greatest reason for living in the US.

Freedom. Yes, it seems to be the most popular response, but it is true.

Most, if not all of us, have ancestors who came here in search of freedom. Either freedom to practice their religion, freedom to succeed if they worked hard, freedom from the oppression and tyranny they had experienced in their home countries, freedom to speak their mind without fearing being carted away in the middle of the night and the freedom to reach their potential instead of a life being forced to live as their ancestor did.

Sure, America is not the most perfect nation on earth, but its as good as we are going to get and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

It means taking responsibility, both for realization of the ideals of this country and for attempting to rectify our country's many injustices perpetrated on some of our own people and on the rest of the world. Might does not make right. We are benefiting from the accident of birth that brought us into this beautiful and privileged land. We must not take any personal credit for our good luck, nor abuse that privilege.

Love of country is not about bragging or thinking we are superior to anyone else. It is about making our country and the world a better place.

The song "America the Beautiful" has several references to this point of view.

"crown thy good with brotherhood"

"America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;

Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!"

"America! America! May God thy gold refine,

'Til all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine!"

and

"undimmed by human tears"

We still have our work cut out for us. No time or desire to rest on laurels or succumb to greedy materialism.

We have turned into exactly what we founded this country to get away from from tyranny! We were supposed to be ,free to live make choices, less government involvement, go to worship as we want or not, But what are ancestors left we have now begun to do to our selves!

It once meant more...

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I had my childish thoughts, understanding and words stolen from me. Beat down and my faith abused...

When I was a child, we had a playground saying: 'Life is like a $#!^ sandwich, the more bread you have, the less $#!^ you gotta' eat!' In my heart, I NEVER believed it...

Freedom, Liberty, Choices and options.