What does it mean to be an American?

Michael Ignatieff writes eloquently in this week's NYT magazine about what it means to be American and what all of us deserve from our government. He writes "A contract of citizenship defines the duties of care that public officials owe to the people of a democratic society."

On the op-ed page Nicholas Kristof details the failure of our health care system to provide basic needs to all Americans. (can't link to it, because of the a glitch in the Times Select system)

Also on the op-ed page, David Brooks details the failure of our institutions of higher education to open the opportunity of a college education to all Americans. He argues that the real root cause of the widening divide between rich and poor is the divide between college and no college. (can't link - same Times Select problem)

I the early and mid 20th century, many immigrants came to this country in search of the American ideal. They were determined to lose their accents and buy in to American institutions. Working class joined unions and their children went to college. Public higher education provided affordable entry to the upper, educated class.

David Brooks hits on something when he writes

Part of the problem is that kids from poorer families have trouble
affording higher education. But given the rising flow of aid money,
financial barriers are not the main issue. A lot of it has to do with
being academically prepared, psychologically prepared and culturally prepared
for college.

What does it mean to be culturally prepared for college? Given the intersection of class and race and education, is this thickly veiled racism? Is it a thinly veiled indictment of "cultural diversity" initiatives? It is time for liberals to reclaim the moral high ground and declare that we demand a government that is an efficient mechanism for provision of basic, baseline, non-negotiable services to all Americans, such as health care. But is it also time for liberals to admit that there is a baseline of shared American cultural values that includes being culturally prepared for college? Does that have to mean to some extent buying out of ethnic, religious, cultural racial diversity?

Not new concepts, just food for thought, but similar questions came up for me a few weeks ago watching a documentary of PBS's POV "The Hobart Shakespeareans." A fifth grade teacher in California teaches his class in a tough immigrant neighborhood to perform Shakespeare. He also takes them on a yearly class trip to Washington DC to show them what it means to be American and to colleges to show them what, as Americans, they have the right to strive for.

The question comes down to: Is the contract of citizenship for every American or only for those that share a common denominator of American Values? It is easy to argue what the government's side of the bargain is, but what is ours?