I am...

I am the basketball hoop without a net in downtown Detroit.

I am the guy in the Old Spice commercial pushing his kid on the swing.

I am the firefighter carrying 80 lbs of equipment on my back while climbing to the 77th floor, all the while knowing I probably will not take the stairs back down.

I am the guy throwing the football to the kids in the neighborhood on the 4th of July.

I am the woman going back to work 45 days after giving birth.

I am 13 stripes and 50 stars.

I am fried chicken and baked beans.

I am Utah and Omaha beaches.

I am the first Thanksgiving dinner.

I am the Old North Church and 1 lantern.

I am - regrettably - Kent State, Watergate, and Abu Graib.

I am the notion of freedom and democracy, and I make that notion work.

I am the Mojave Desert and the Savannah’s of the southeastern shores.

I am “Give me liberty, or give me death”.

I am baseball in October, Football in January, and basketball in March.

I am 3 ships with Spanish names.

I am “a chicken in every pot”.

I am Will Rogers, Kenny Rogers, and Buck Rogers.

I am black, white, brown, yellow, and red.

I am English, but I can learn.

I am Lewis and Clark.

I am Arthur Fiedler.

I am Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

I am Shaker Village, Hancock Village, and Tahoe Village.

I am “new” - New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the Tallmadge Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

I am the falls of Niagara.

I am a cheesesteak in Philly, and an Italian Ices in “The City”, and a sub in Boston.

I am Omaha, Des Moines, Wichita, and St. Paul.

I am John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe.

I am “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941…a date which will live in infamy.”

I am Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron - and grudgingly - Barry Bonds.

I am “All in the family”, “Moonlighting”, and “Bonanza”.

I am Texas, strong and large…and also Delaware, meek and quiet.

I am the PT 109.

I am Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument.

I am the steam engine, the cotton gin, and the motor car.

I am Henry Ford, Bill Gates, and Berkshire Hathaway.

I am freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and sometimes I am guilty of the abuse of each.

I am Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, and David Brinkley.

I am rock and roll, and I am hip-hop.

I am Samuel Clemens, but you may call me Mark.

I am a Vermont dairy farm, and a West Palm Beach condo.

I am Big Bird, Bugs Bunny, and a Mouse named “Mickey”.

I am Princeton, Stanford, and a small community college in your hometown.

I am Robin Williams and George Burns.

I am the first transcontinental flight as well as the first transcontinental ballistic missile.

I am shining from sea to sea.

I am war and I am peace.

I am Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Malcolm X.

I am the gold rush of ’48 and ’49.

I am October 1929, and I survived.

I am the Red Sox versus the Yankees, the Steelers versus the Cowboys, and Billy Jean versus Bobby Riggs.

Inexplicably, I am “American Idol”, “Survivor”, and “Fear Factor”.

I am Alaska, vast, mysterious, and gorgeous.

I am an otherwise perfect September Tuesday in 2001.

I am “Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”.

I am Davey Crockett, Sam Bowie and “The Alamo”.

I am Hollywood, Dollywood, and wish-I-could.

I am the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the Air Force.

I am the Easter Seals, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, and Make-a-wish.

I am “old” – Old Dominion University, This Old House, Old-time Rock and Roll, the Old Farmers Almanac, and Old Glory.

I am Stephen King, Carl Sandberg, and Louisa May Alcott.

I am criticized and admired, but I stand here with open arms in either case.

I am wrong and I am right.

I am California, therefore I am sometimes superficial and weird.

I am the Pops, and several wonderful philharmonics.

I am Ford Theater, the Ambassador Hotel in LA, a balcony in Memphis, and the grassy knoll.

Finally, I am the younger brother tearfully eulogizing...

"My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it”.

"Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world”.

"As he said many times in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and ask why? I dream things that never were and ask why not"?

This is who I am, and whether up or down, I'm still better than you are. If that were not true, you wouldn't keep coming.