What’s it mean to be an American?

John Trump – John Szoka, an Army veteran, was thinking about 9/11. About the attacks and the aftermath. 

The ghost-like figures, covered in ash, emerging from the destruction. 

All looking much the same. Shocked, shaken, and scared. No tags or labels.  

“You couldn’t tell if someone was black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor. Everybody was the same. We were all Americans, we were all the same,” said Szoka, a retired lieutenant colonel and N.C. House Republican who represents Cumberland County, which includes Fayetteville and Fort Bragg.  Continue reading