DON'T YOU GET IT? IT'S AMERICA!

Byline: Lisa Ames  Local View

I am an American. I was born here. But I am a patriot because of my father.

My father taught me that to be an American was hard work, a privilege not to be taken lightly.

I knew from a young age that my family was lucky to live here, that in Russia and Poland they barely had bread. That freedom was a big word. That to throw a baseball was freedom, to run from one end of your block to the next was freedom. To own a car was freedom, to cross from Kansas to Iowa in it, on the way to Minnesota, was freedom.

I knew how to treat the American flag from an early age. It was given dignity; it was born here. It flew every day from our San Fernando Valley house.

I knew how to take it down, fold it properly and never let it touch the ground, and if it did, it had to be burned.

In my house, during any event where ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' was played, we stood up, right there in our living room, any hats were removed and any friend visiting was asked to do the same. My friends have never forgotten this ritual. Most of their parents didn't even own a flag.

I learned how to love my country at home. I said the Pledge of Allegiance at school when I was young, not understanding it completely, but it was a tradition, a signal to begin an American school morning.

I said it because I was proud, not because of what it said. I said it because the teacher said, ``Hand over your heart, ready, begin.''

I said it because I felt honored, because that was my flag!

My father never said America was perfect. We have problems, he would say, lots of them. What he did say is that America is the best place so far. That men lived and died for me. That important men spent time thinking about our beginning and wrote down words, careful words, for me.

Our forefathers knew that to be an American was going to be tough, that we needed laws and rules to help us.

I don't like everything about America, but I love that we try and keep trying to get it right. That we care about nine men trapped in a mine or a child lost. That we go back to save just one soldier. That we teach our children to be tolerant and kind. That every day we get up with the best intentions to be good people, to treat people right.

America lives in my heart and in my mind.

Pride moves all the way from my toes and wells up in my throat at ``The Star-Spangled Banner,'' that our flag was still there. That I can sing it out loud at a baseball game and that my son knows to take his hat off (because his Gramma Trisha taught him so), are all American things.

You may not like the Pledge of Allegiance, and that's OK. You have the right not to say it. Don't you get it? That's America!