Explain What It Means To Be An American

What does it mean to be an American? I think to be an American it means that you were born in the United States( or if your parents are American) and if you were born in a different country but your parents are Americans and you come back to live here then you're an American too. If you're an immigrant and you have went through the whole legal process not just sneak across the any of the American boarders. Some older people seem to think if you were born on American soil (or if your family was in the army but on another countries soil your still and American). But if you come from another country even if you get your green card or have your citizenship your still a foreigner. My grandmother feels that if your from another country, have
an accent or don't know English, then your not and American. Americans tend to be proud of their nation as a whole, if anything were to happen they try to express how they would do almost anything for their country. They are considered spoiled and lazy to other countries because we don't have to work as hard as other people do in other countries because of all of our labor laws. We are country that is extremely time demanding country. I think we value all of our time and if its being wasted then we complain about it. My definition of an American would some what describe me. I feel you should feel proud in any country that you reside in and show how proud you are to be in that country. If I was to go to a country like France (and they don't really find Americans appealing) I wouldn't be ashamed to say that I was an American. I an American but I'm not like every other American. I love the country that I live in because you're are allowed your freedom of speech, to wear whatever you please, and talk to whomever you please. Immigrants come over seas to get what we have and I feel that we should be pleased that people want to come over to our country to live because there are those countries that nobody wants to be in, even the people that live there. This is what I feel to be an American.