An Ongoing Debate

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…” Matthew 24:7

As I’ve told you before, my husband is from Russia. That makes him Russian.


His family is also from Russia. That makes them all Russians too.


I’m from the US. All my family is from the US. I’d say we’re all Americans. Sometimes we say we’re Norwegian, or American Indian, or whatever, but we can all agree that first and foremost we are Americans.


Now the husband threw a kink into all this 8 years ago when he became a US citizen.


He says he’s an American now.


I argue that he’ll never be an American. He is a US Citizen, but is still Russian.


He says he’s learned the language, adopted the “way of life”, which I argue only includes going to Wal-Mart on Sunday, and that he’s an American.


I say, “Well then I’m Russian because I married one.”


He makes terrible faces to the contrary, and I reinforce my opinion that he’ll never be an American.


Then I say, “If I moved to Russia, and ate borscht every day, would I be Russian?”


He says, “No.”


So I tell him that he’s not an American!


We both get kind of huffy about it sometimes.


Apparently we both have a great deal of nationalistic pride.


So what do you think? Is being American (or Russian) more about your birthplace, or your heritage, or your culture, or your current location? Can someone originally from another country really become an American? Or are they just citizens?


Thanks for settling this matter in advance.


Love,


The American