By Shamsi Ali Al-Nuyorki
Today, July 4th, is a day etched in the memory of every American. It is Independence Day. To all Americans, near and far, I extend my warmest wishes for a blessed and joyous Fourth of July.
This year is certainly even more special because it also coincides with the commemoration of America’s 250th birthday. It is a very long span of time one that will never cease to be remembered and spoken of.
From the hour it declared its freedom from England, the United States has been in restless pursuit of growth, maturity, and the constant betterment of itself.
The America we know today, a superpower among nations, was not born whole. It has been tempered by challenge after challenge, and in answering them, America and its people have been gifted opportunity after opportunity.
I am an immigrant, as nearly all Americans are, save our Native Indian brothers and sisters. Since I first set foot on this soil, I have been met with abundance. My family has flourished. The pursuit of my American dream endures. And above all, I am blessed to belong to this great nation, and proud of the values for which it stands.
America is not merely a stretch of land traced by borders. Nor is it only a people endowed with brilliance in science and technology. Nor is it only the sum of its economic growth, political reach, or military power.
More profoundly, America is an idea. It is a set of ideals. It is the values this nation has held dear across its history: democracy, liberty, justice, equality, and the right to pursue happiness.
And it is this that makes me proud to be woven into the American tapestry, to be a among, a small thread in the vast, vibrant, and colorful fabric of American life.
I was born Indonesian. My faith is Islam. My heritage and culture are Asian. Yet none of this lessens my bond to my adopted home. It deepens it.
Each of us carries many identities at once. Cultural, spiritual, ancestral, they shift with time, shaped by personal journeys, by community, and by the turning of the world. Identity is not a fixed stone. It is a living process, not merely “being,” but always “becoming.”
American identity, too, is not static. It is not carved in granite. It evolves with each generation, each era, each new voice added to the chorus.
America is a living organism. And like all living things, if it ceases to renew itself, to change with the seasons of history, it risks losing the very essence of who it is.
With time, America has grown more diverse, more resilient, more beautiful. And with that, it carries greater hope, to be honored at home, and respected across the world.
So it is with American multiculturalism. Our history is one of an ever-widening embrace, an evolving acceptance of deep and profound diversity.
To preserve, to embrace, to welcome difference, this is the nature of our nation. America, born of immigrants, finds strength, not weakness, in the freedom of cultures and faiths to flourish.
As we move through the 21st century, the heart of multicultural life has shifted toward inclusive citizenship, toward the rights and responsibilities we all share, and the values that bind us.
Across the decades, the metaphor has changed: from “mosaic,” to “belonging,” to “harmony,” to “conforming.”
Today, as this great nation marks another year of its founding, I would offer a different word: “respect”.
Let “respect” be the key metaphor of our American multiculturalism.
To be American is not only to be born on this soil, to hold an American passport, or to claim the shield of individual rights.
To be American is to be a responsible citizen, in thought, in word, and in deed.
To be American is to be indefinable. There is no single prototype. A newcomer may come to these shores and love this country as deeply, or even more deeply, than one whose family has been here for seven generations.
The 17th-century philosopher Spinoza once wrote, “Citizens are made, not born.” Nowhere is that more true than in America.
To be American, I hope, is to be a citizen of the finest country on earth and to be welcomed and respected wherever one goes.
To be American is to belong to a great, diverse, and functioning family, where every member is received, embraced, and honored.
To be American is to strive, always, to better ourselves, our bonds with one another, our service to the nation, and to the world.
To be American is to treat our sisters and brothers in other nations with dignity, and to accept responsibility when we have failed them, when we have mistreated those we called “the other,” those we deemed different from ourselves.
Thus, to be American is to practice acceptance. It is to live with respect for those unlike us. It is to feel compassion and to give generously, especially to those with less, and to share the blessings we enjoy, both at home and abroad.
To be American is to be free: free to dream, free to speak, free to laugh, free to live, free to believe and worship, free to carry our cultures without fear. And to be easy in your own skin, whatever its shade.
To be American is to be loyal, patriotic, and faithful to the nation, to care for its people and guard its peace.
And to be American is to be what you are in faith: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, non-believer, or seeker, and still be a good American, and a good human being.
To define “being American” in simple words is difficult. It is as complex, as layered, as wondrous as America itself.
Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans!
A Proud American of Kajang Origin