American Independence Question

Dan,
sorry,you are not correct.The people I am descended from will always be my ancestors.

From reading many of the threads here,especially those where we discuss things like our founding fathers and our constitution I think to at least some of us, it means a lot more that just a party.

Dan,
You are correct, Every time my family or I have done geneology research it all leads back to your side of the pond.

I see what you mean about the current country mix though and now your question makes more sense to me than before.

While I do live in Virginia now, I was in my teenage years when my family moved here.My father had gotten a different government job and we had to relocate.He was working in Oklahoma,where we moved from, for the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) and went to school at night and got his law degree,and then got a job in our nations capital working for the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).
Have lived in Virginia ever since.

Terra,
I hate to point out grammar errors,but didn't you mean this to say:
"And I'd put it on today too if it weren't supposed to be 99 degrees Fahrenheit without factoring in the hair index! " ?

I think the most important question of the day is, will Joey Chestnut break his record of eating 65 hotdogs in 10 minutes?

Only 9% of modern-day Americans are Anglo-Americans.

Yet, it does have something to do with the other 91% - even if you ignore the fact that it's their country and they have every right to celebrate it's independence anyway, regardless of their ancestry, the other groups of "hypehanted Americans" were all very heavily represented in achieveing that independence.

English was a minority language in the Continental Army - German and Irish were more common, spoken by people from Germany and Ireland (obviously, I suppose!). And the Continental Army was often outnumbered on the battlefield by French troops fighting alongside them.

Today, German-, Irish-, and Franco-Americans account for about 35% of the US population. Despite not being descended from anyone in Britain, me thinks the day probably means as much to them as anyone.

You said...

And the Continental Army was often outnumbered on the battlefield by French troops fighting alongside them.

I say...

Not really true.

The French came into the war late, didn't engage in a lot of fighting and there wasn't a lot of fighting in the last couple years of the war.

They never outnumbered the American troops in any major battle and when Washington on the ground and the French Navy at sea, trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown to effectively end the war, 25% of Washington's 20K troops were of African decent.

Lots of people like to say that American independence would not have been possible without direct French assistance...

... but I believe without French help the war would have simply dragged on for as long as it took for the British to understand that the American war for independence was a done deal.

It doesn't matter to Americans when and where we came from, we're all Americans now and on the 4th of July we celebrate the founding of the nation we love so much.


All The Best!!


TL

My Dads side is Scotch Irish. My Moms Welch English.

My Wifes is German Hungarian.

Therefore, My Kids are Scotch Irish Welch English German Hungarian.

Now THATS America.

Happy Independence Day!

As a Brit in the US, how I feel when someone asks if we celebrate the 4th July in England. :rolleyes:
:p

I'm not sure why it matters who you descended from. The 4th marks the day this became an independent country. THAT is the celebration no matter what your ancestory happens to be.

Jimbo, I think the American constitution is the most beautiful document ever written and I celebrate it heavily. Enforcing it is not always easy, but the ideas in it themselves are what we believe in our hearts that being an American is all about, and so it makes being American a thing of beauty to us, because what it "means" is in the words on that paper.

Some people try to corrupt things, and make it difficult for Americans to live within their constitutional rights...but what we "are" technically, is what we all believe, despite our complaints, to be the greatest country on the planet.

There are evils but the good outweighs the bad... America to me is a set of ideals that are beautiful and worth striving for.

Greed and corruption always exist, everywhere.

But the thing that greed is trying to corrupt itself is beautiful. America.

Ps. Dan, as for me, the English are my ancestors... and I am proud of that too. They were the proud Englishman who wanted their own way and fought for it to put me where I am, and this is where those ancestors wanted me to be. Hats off to them today!

Nope. Never quite tried that, but one day my grandson was hopping back and forth across the living room...and I finlly figured out that it was the monty python show, he was copying the horseman that have no horses...it was hilarious when I realized what he was doing.