06/25/2025
WHAT AMERICA MEANS TO ME
By JOHN WAYNE
What does America mean to me? America and its people are God-fearing, hard-working, honest. To me, America means Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution, George Washington and the winter at Valley Forge, Thomas Paine and freedom, Abraham Lincoln and the freeing of the slaves, giving them human dignity no matter the color of their skins.
It means the men at the Alamo, and all the brave Americans who died for our country—from the American Revolution to Vietnam.
America also means Iowa where I was born, Glendale, California where I grew up — old-fashioned patriotism, love of country, God, and everything decent in life.
I’ve been described as a flag waver, a super patriot. I plead guilty. I am all that and I don’t care who knows it.
I’ve been all over America and I thank God every day for this country and its people, the pioneers who founded it and left the old world because they had too much character to knuckle under over there. They came over here and built a nation out of the wilderness. That takes guts, and guts is what the Americans have more than anything else.
Our revolution was not made up of dissidents and irresponsible cowards. It was made up of people who had close ties with the Old Country. Responsible citizens who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. It was a word that we do not seem to make much use of today: honor.
They were men of guts and honor.
To me, America means the billions of dollars that we’re given to the rest of the world to use. It is America who gives a damn about that world even though most of the time we get nothing in return. Maybe there’s a reason for that, too. We never were smart about how we dole out that money.
America is our flag and what it stands for. It’s a kid in the first grade with his hand over his heart reciting the pledge of allegiance.
This is my country and your country and we both ought to be damn proud of it. I know I am!
