I am very patriotic and i think it is hard to answer this question......what do you think it means to be an american?

Do you guys remember that pilot dude who faked his own death-by-airplane crash, jumped out of the plane before it met its doom, escaped on a getaway motorcycle which was stolen, and then claimed to have been in a canoe accident, all because he committed financial fraud?

That man is a True American in my book. Pity he was jailed - they should have let him off for being hardcore awesome.

Anyway, that aside, self-reliance, tolerance for other's beliefs and ways of life, commitment to your own, and a willingness to sacrifice comfort and security for the sake of freedom and independence.

Thoreau is a good example of this.

Now, if this country was cooler, we'd have more people like him, that pilot would not have gone to jail, our national flag would be the Gadsen flag, and our anthem wouldn't totally suck.

Being American is following your own beliefs and respecting the rights and privacy of others to follow theirs.
Oh shit, half the damn country just got deported!

I think being American means that you uphold what America was founded on - Democracy. I think that being American means we uphold our rights to question our government, assemble, and hold our leaders accountable. I think being American is based on PEACE, COMMUNITY, and raising up to all of our potential through education, universal healthcare, and being a good global community member. We all just want to be happy.

Being an American means you are a part of a society that stands for protecting rights, individualism and egalitarianism.

simple, next question please.

I think that my views on what it means to me to be an American are best expressed by the movie on this site, it's for a book called Thinking Big: video Basically a strong set of progressive values.

Do you mean what an American is suppose to be, or what an American actually is?
I'd like to believe that Americans share the values of the founding fathers, of freedom and acceptance. I'm proud of the Bill of Rights, of the fact that we're a people descended from immigrants, of our long history of democracy.
However, this isn't the way the U.S. govt. and people always act. In class, we're reading The Poisionwood Bible, and it's horrible to learn what my country did to the Congo and Patrice Lumumba. Not to mention all of the civilians in Afghanastan we're murdering. And the illegal wiretapping, and the torture, and the fact tha Bush can lie about a war and somehow not get impeached. This is definitely not America's brightest moment, sadly.
When it comes down to it, I think the true Americans are ones who live by the values America was founded on, not hide behind a banner of patriotism. The most un-American thing you can do, I think, is to say America is always perfect and right.

I don't think I can answer this question without being to cliche', but for me as a Soldier being an American means I serve my country, I fight for my country, and if necessary I will die for my country so that others may sleep well, and laugh and joke with their families, and live normal lives.

Like I said cliche' but true.