The question of what it means to be American is difficult to answer. When I was growing up, America was the great melting pot of the world.

No matter where you came from, America was the land of opportunity where all people could come together and live in harmony.

As I grew older, I realized that the melting pot idea was a new one, and America had not always clung to such idealistic notions. Women got the vote only in the early part of this century, and when the League of Nations was formed we had denied the Japanese an “equality of races” clause.

I started asking myself what it meant to be an American. The notion I arrived at was that being American was more important than anything.

We all espouse the values this country was founded on: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These ideas are central to the American dream that every person has the fundamental right to decide what course his or her life shall take.

While we may bicker from time to time over whose state is better, it is always friendly banter and for the most part we hold no ill will towards each other. Some disagree, pointing to the southern states and saying that they will never truly accept the North.

They cite as proof the existence of the Confederate flag and that it flies above some state capitols. Though I will grant the possibility that there may exist some animosity rooted in the Civil War, I cannot conceive that any of those peoples would seek to undermine this great nation with another secession.

I regard this matter like the argument between Iowa and Minnesota over the Des Moines nightlife. An off-hand remark by then-Governor Carlson does not imply hate or resentment.

I consider America a unified nation with a common heritage. Our society is one that others try to emulate, and the possibilities of the task Europeans are undertaking are breathtaking.

Earlier this year, eleven European nations banded together economically under a new currency called the Euro.

This new economic bloc unites almost three hundred million people with a gross domestic product roughly equivalent to ours.

Some policy makers fear the Euro, believing a unified Europe will undermine American interests at home and abroad. Even though the economic numbers do not support such a conclusion (the GDP increase for the EU is 2.7 percent; ours is 3.8 percent), the idea that some people are afraid of European unification is startling to me.

Those people who fear the Euro cannot help but think in such antiquated ideas as nation states and national interests.

It is unfortunate that they see everything as a calculated game of chess between opposing nations, unable to comprehend that something more important binds all of us together.

Despite whatever differences there may be, we do share a common ancestry. But the more important realization that must be made is that we are all human.

Understand the implications of this. Europe has been divided for as long as recorded history, with every nation at each other’s throats. France and Germany have been enemies for a long time, and the consequences of their rivalry had decimated the continent.

But now the two nations are linked, standing together in the belief of a unified Europe. They have set aside past transgressions in favor of a single European power.

Believe what you will about this simply being a union of currencies, but realize that all eleven nations have joined together.

Their meshing of economic policies and removal of restrictions on travel are but the first steps in something that has taken a long time to happen.

Slowly but surely, humanity will unite. Though most people will not want to give up their national heritage, they will agree to economic consolidation. It is a grandiose idea but one that was inevitable.

Society is evolving and those who choose to cling to the past are doomed to be left behind. As the original thirteen colonies banded together, so is Europe despite even more formidable obstacles.

In the short term we will have the EUR-11 and NAFTA, but many years down the road we will see a consolidation. It may not happen in my lifetime, but it will happen.

After all, if Europe could unite fifty years after a devastating global war, think of what the next fifty will bring us.

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Aaron Woell is a junior in political science from Bolingbrook, Ill.