How much do you relate to your heritage?

We Picts never sang "God Save the Queen"

U.S. citizens rarely say/think they are "North American." That's a term to getting a question correct in a Social Studies test in the Middle Grades.

Many U.S. citizens might just say they are American, as though they are the only Americans in the hemisphere (where everyone is an American). This was once pointed out to me by a Mexican that wanted me to understand that Mexicans are also Americans.

I believe there are some U.S. citizens that just think of Canadians as Americans (U.S. type) that somehow are living more north than the 50 states go. (Actually Buffalo, NY is as far north as Canada.) They (Canadians) even have regional accents like people in some states in the U.S. have.

Back in the '50's children in the U.S. watched a black and white tv serial called Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Heck if I could explain why Sergeant Preston wasn't just a U.S. American, only living more north with his "trusty" dog.

I've encountered this "American" thing abroad, Foofie. Everyone asks if I'm from "America" I always say, "No, I'm Canadian". To them, all of North American is America, but to me, Americans are U.S. only.

When I must fill out passport. VISA or Customs' Declaration forms for travel, I always write "American," and it's always accepted no matter to what country the VISA is for or traveling from. Never had a problem, and I've traveled to over 100 countries in all seven continents.

Can you explain? I also think you were quoting me.

Does anyone know why the Angles and the Saxons (aka, Anglo-Saxon) got top billing when it came to define England/Britain in a more modern sense?

I understand the Scots are Celts, and so are the Irish. Both of Celtic ancestry, but I believe of different religions, as history played itself out.

I was misquoted. At least, I didn't say that.

Just a slight editing problem folks, Osso's post starts off with "quote Foofie" but "Mame" shows up in bold, because Foofie had quoted her at the beginning of his post...it happens.

Solipsistic: self centered, egocentric...American centric, is what I believe she was getting at.

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When I first ventured onto the net, when asked where I was from...I would always answer Missouri {MO}, until I got accustomed to the fact that I was often speaking to a "foreigner"...someone not from North America. Then I switched my answer to MO, USA....which often didn't help much, but at least they knew what part of the globe I hailed from.

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2P - Mo.
X - Mo?
2P - Missouri.
X - ?
2P - USA....American.
X - Ah, are you close to NY City?
2P - No.
X - Then why do you live there?
2P - @#$$#@

2P, You need to tell them you live in the state with the "arch." That'll really have them confused. LOL

2 Packs, you're right - that my quote showed up as from Mame is something that happens sometimes with the quoting process, and I didn't pick up on it.

I do think many people in the USA think of the US rather automatically as the only America, and they the only Americans, even though it's obvious that there is a north, central, and south america. Thus, a solipsistic state of mind.

Yeah, sometimes the Arch....St. Louis Arch....will ring a bell, or any of the other things that we are known for....Twain, Mules, Show Me State, Pony Express, state with the bootheel...but the one that usually does the trick is Jesse James.

I usually tend to avoid mentioning Limbaugh or Ashcroft, for obvious reasons....but will name drop Dr Carver, Hubble and Vincent Price...as well as some of our sort-of-from Mo celebs.....Scott Joplin, Laura Ingles Wilder, and Brad Pitt.

What, you don't hearken back to the world's fair?

In preparation of the 04 fair, a year or so before hand the governor of Mo set aside a small fund earmarked for data gathering, which eventually became a book about the state, not so much a history, but a statistical analysis of...well pretty much everything. I don't have the book on hand {most are in storage} but...at the time...1900ish...Mo was ranked either number 1 or 2 in nearly all agricultural/livestock production in comparison with the other states.

Quite often the charts would break things down in perspective, such as Mo produced more "x" than, say the next 10 states on the list combined. Or even in a few categories, more than all the other states combined, and often there would be a world comparison, where we also ranked very high...considering our relative size, it was impressive. Naturally, the book was written by Missourians, so there could be a tad bit of stretching...but I've read similar reports from independent sources that confirm this.

A hundred years later, we are still producing roughly the same amounts, in several of the categories, but the other states have caught up to/surpassed us, as well as other countries....Brazil for instance with it's soybean production.

Anyway, it's a neat book, and I am way the hell off topic....

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America the word is so much more associated with the US than with Mexico, or Canada. Obviously it's part of our name, the United States Of...many of our nationalistic songs contain the word...."America The Beautiful". I often hear the national anthem referred to as the American anthem, but never the United States anthem. The terms, Irish, Italian, German, Asian, African-American, fuel this as well. The term Mexican American, means a Mexican living in the U.S., which is actually redundant, being that they are already "Americans" by birth...same goes for Canadians. When I hear the term Canadian-American, I always think..."that's the same thing"...should I call myself American-American now to fit in. None of us call ourselves United Statesians...well I have, but while being silly.

As far as being centric about the name American, I can see where it is easy for someone to fall into that line of thinking. The terms America and the U.S., have become synonymous with one another, interchangeable...instead of one simply being a part of the other. Geographically, we are all Americans, but ideologically we are not.

Just as I never have heard somebody refer to Los Estados Unidos de Mexico in casual conversation...

Just so you all know...What I said was tongue in cheek. My Great Grandfather did not cling to his roots just like my husbands family did not cling to theirs...changing their name from being spelled Hawk to the English spelling of Hawke. My husbands grandmother added the "e". Back in their day the Indians were considered pitiful and no one wanted to be associated with their heritage. They did not live on reservations - they moved on and married other people...I actually think that this country is made great by the many nationalities it is comprised of.

As I said - and it is sad to me that they felt this way - we don't know a lot about our Indian Heritage because our grandparents were ashamed of it at the time. I wish they could have had a good balance of knowing that where they came from was nothing to be ashamed of and able to assimilate without that stigma. But sometimes things just are what they are. They did just fine!

Anyway...just wanted to clarify.

100% correct!

So, out of boredom, I googled what is likely my grandmother's clan in Scotland. There's a bit of history listed: apparently they were violent bastards throughout the middle ages and renaissance, neglected their land and business interests in favor of violent endeavors, and were impoverished by the 18th century.

Which I suppose would explain how they ended up impoverished in Missouri in the early 20th century...

Which Clan?