As we noted at the beginning, the United States is a large country. The geographical diversity is obvious – rocky beaches in New England and the Northwest, sandy beaches on the southeast coast and in California and Hawaii, mountain ranges near both coasts, vast plains in the center of the country, huge deserts in the Southwest, frozen tundra in Alaska, and volcanic islands in Hawaii. Each region has special characteristics because of geography and because each region was settled by different peoples under different conditions through more than four centuries.

 

The Korean-American booth during “Meet the World” festival in Anchorage, Alaska, where 93 languages are spoken.
 

It is important to remember that, although the country is very large and the regions diverse, there are more similarities than differences among the people who call themselves “American.” After all, this country’s coins carry the motto “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one), and this is an ideal that Americans take seriously.

 

“In many other countries, national identity has everything to do with who your parents are or the particular piece of land on which you grew up,” Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said in a recent speech. “Being a true American has more to do with what you believe than where you are from. When immigrants earn citizenship, they are given the same rights and freedoms as every other American. It does not matter that their parents were not American. It does not matter that they cannot trace their family’s lineage back in time to find an ancestor who shed blood in the Revolutionary War. The key to being American is sharing certain fundamental beliefs, such as the value of self-governance and the right to free speech and to worship as you choose.”