Yee-HAW! A cowboy rides off in the sunset. Alan Jackson's masterpiece "Chattahoochee"
begins to play, softly yet surely. The cowboy pulls a blade and begins to shave, he scraps through
his back right pocket, pulls his Mail Pouch and packs a hog-nut. The sun beats down on the
barren Wild West. An excruciating day of herding longhorns, the cowboy reaches for a flask and
takes a swig of his last few drops of Jameson Whiskey. He dismounts himself from his horse,
beings taking stepping towards the door with intent. Swinging the door open he looks left, grabs
a bottle of Jameson, fills his flask and takes his boots off. This is not an American. To define
what an American is is absurd. Being an American could mean literally anything to anyone,
however, I will confine it to three main topics; Being free, The oppression of freedom, and being
an individual in your small world.
Being an American has to be defined partially as the freedom we have within America. Take
you or me as an example of an American here. Every morning your eyes open in America you
have freedoms. American citizens have the power, in their average inconsequential lives, to;
Wake up or sleep in, Buy that thing or save some dollars, Punch that man in the head or walk
away. What is ‘freedom’ you may ask? By definition, per dictionary.com, freedom is the power
to determine action without restraint. However, throughout my past 12 years of schooling, I
define freedom as a concept. A concept that varies depending on who you are, how old you are,
the way you appear to the general public and everything else that makes you an individual.
Freedom should see no race, age, or appearance, unfortunately, what things should be and what
they result in is two very different outcomes.
Being an American is a failure by design. Marty Tankleff exemplifies this form of being an
American. Given freedom in America, for the majority of us who aren’t millionaires or rock
stars, is accompanied by oppression by default. Freedom, in my description, the option to
oppress those individuals who don't follow suit in our society. The outliers, often those who
make their own paths, lose freedoms because he or she is accredited the way someone...
