It's Time To Be An American First

By Terry McGahey
Associate Writer/ Historian

One of the problems I see going on in this country today besides the radical and special interest groups is the American people themselves. People today, as in yesteryears, with much of our population, they have a tendency to refer to themselves by their ethnic background first such as African American, Irish American, Mexican American, Ukrainian American, and so on and so forth.

We the people of this country need to call ourselves Americans first with the ethnic background second. We need to all become Americans first which may start to bring us together somewhat instead of divided as we are now. 

When claiming ethnicity in front of "American," it automatically divides us from other ethnic groups, which believe it or not adds to the division of people in this country.

For example, I heard a friend of mine once say he was from Ukraine because he is of Ukrainian descent. In reality, he was born in this country and his folks were from Ukraine. He is an American with Ukrainian blood. It really hurts my heart to hear people use their blood background first rather than second.

I don’t know how much it may help to heal what's happened to our great nation. But folks should start being Americans first, then maybe we could find a way to start coming back together as a country.