When I first came to the United States I found that everyone of whom I asked, “Where do you come from?” would answer in terms of some other country. Hardly anyone seemed to have come from a region of the United States.

Even now our immediate neighbors declare themselves to be Dutch, South African and Irish although only one of the three couples actually came from those countries their forebears did. They are also, by the way, Protestant, Jewish and Catholic respectively, while my wife and I are not religious but more of that later.

So, what is an American?

The residents of the United States can be labeled in many ways, by the birthplace, by where their forebears came from, by their religion, by their political beliefs, by their color, by their home location and by their work.

Among these characteristics there is note one which might label an American, whereas in a European country most of the people living in a country were born there. There is no ambiguity about a true Brit even though they may be subdivided into the Scottish, the English, the Welsh and the Northern Irish. A Brit was born in the British Isles, speaks English, and has certain national characteristics. Immigrants who may be black and who come from Commonwealth countries will never be truly British.

The same cannot be said about Americans.

Despite the efforts of the government to encourage singing the national anthem (even at sports events!), learning the constitution and the Bill of rights, there is no large majority of residents in the U.S. who would wave the flag and stand behind the troops declaring undying allegiance to this country. Only extremists do that.

Take our neighbors. Our orthodox Jewish neighbors have chosen not to be part of any society other than Jewish. They declare themselves South African and I suspect will never even be Coloradoan, let alone American. Our protestant neighbors have also withdrawn from majority society in favor of their fairly severe Christian’ beliefs. They make some few efforts to be part of the neighborhood but in general only mix with their own kind. They know they are really not Dutch despite their origins. Our Catholic neighbors, who I believe, once visited Ireland celebrate their Irish’ inheritance continually celebrating Irish holidays and decorating their home with shamrocks and the green.’ None of my neighbors hang out the Stars and Stripes on flag days.

Both my wife and I carry two passports: mine are British and American while my wife’s are Belgian and American. Our children only have American passports at present and are educated in British English and Flemish. We intend that they be international citizens.

But no, there is no such thing as a true American.