“I don’t like to be called Cuban-American. I don’t like to be called Hispanic. I am an American. Period. And that’s what is important.” – Erasmo Pinero Jr.

I don’t think of myself as a Kiwi-American either. I’m proud that I was born in New Zealand, but The United States is my country and I love it. I am an American, period.

For political purposes, you often hear catch phrases which serve only to divide us. I walked into my living room a few weeks ago, and had just about every race represented by the neighborhood kids, all gathered around the Wii. They didn’t care about racial divide or discrimination…they cared about the skills that each brought to the game. It was just a bunch of kids playing, but they saw each other as individuals, and…they were color-blind in the racial sense.

It was the end of a long day for me as I stepped over and made my way through the living room. “Hi Dad”, I heard my son say as I was headed for the bedroom. I turned around, looked at the whole scene and I realized, this is what Martin Luther King spoke of, this was his dream. And here it is in my living room on display. I don’t think racism is gone by any stretch, what I am saying is, there is hope and hopefully these flashes of ‘colorblindedness’ can become more frequent, even among adults. We should do what we can to eliminate the divide between groups, and reach out to bring the groups together. When we are able to bring these groups together, and synergize the strengths, we make places like the flight deck of an aircraft carrier unbeatable world class teams. I have seen it with my own eyes.

So, whenever you hear speech where Americans are divided by hyphens, something-American, I challenge you to ask yourself: Why does that particular group need to be separated? What is the motivation behind separating them? Who benefits by putting one group up against another?

Same goes for class warfare. Who is “the rich” anyway? If you make $15 grand a year, the guy making $25 grand is “rich” right? Right now we hear that the definition of “rich” is those who make $450 grand or more, but I have also heard it defined as those who make $250 grand or more. I suspect, as we deplete “the rich”, that this defining number will continue to fall, until we are all “rich”. The point is, it is arbitrary and relative. When we say we will make the “rich” pay for something, be careful, because to someone out there, we are all rich. Similar to hyphens, this is divisive speech, pitting one group against another.

I challenge you to take the hyphens and class envy out of your speech. We are citizens of a great country, we are Americans, period. I believe the American Dream of being able to come to this country with nothing and make something for yourself with hard work is still alive and well. We can’t guarantee success, but the opportunity is certainly there, and that opportunity must be guarded.

Are you proud of your country? I hope so, I sure am.