If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title hands-down.

There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

While tributes to Americans who had lost their lives in battle had been held in a number of towns across the nation one of the more well-known stories about the beginnings of Memorial Day is the story about General John Logan.

Nowadays many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored and worse neglected.

I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.

The average American is nothing if not patriotic.

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.

As America celebrates Memorial Day we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in our nation's wars.

My fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.

Most people outside of America won't get it. It's the Easter bunny. It's another lie and I don't understand why we had to invent this character.

In 1934 the American Jewish charities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children. We were on the SS Washington bound for New York Christmas 1934.

Brits and Americans have hundreds of different phrases for the same thing. Luckily it's usually a source of amusement rather than frustration. A flashlight by any other name is still a torch. My personal favourite is 'fairy lights ' which we boringly refer to as 'Christmas lights.'

Black Friday is not another bad hair day in Wall Street. It's the term used by American retailers to describe the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday seen as the semi-official start of Christmas shopping season.

America is at that awkward stage it's too late to work within the system but too early to shoot the bastards.

I am living proof that the American dream still exists. It is still alive and well. There is only one trick you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and work very very hard.

The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform and I knew that it could possibly not work out.

One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America like America love America and then work.