The Real Americans

A thousand bright eagles, the sons of your sons, the daughters of your daughters.

As part of the 200-year celebration of Tiffin’s “birth,” we have invited descendants of the early settlers to join us at an opening ceremony.  Their ancestors were, as someone said, the “roots” of our community.  But roots are not the whole tree. 

Who are the “real” Americans?  People who lived 200 years ago are memories.  Their descendants are of many races and religions and lifestyles.  They have married and their children have married and their children.  They live in many countries.  They speak many languages. 

They are the living.  They are the “real” Americans. 

We can celebrate their “roots.”  It is proper to honor the pioneer life.  We think of them as settlers. But they were as much, if not more, voyagers, migrants, immigrants, searchers for a new life on a frontier. 

So are we, their descendants, the many branches, the great spreading canopy of leaves and the seeds that are scattered in every land, on every frontier, of the earth.