The Rise and Fall of Empires

 So I'm going to break from my poetry to talk about something important to me. Politics. I'm reading a book about hyper powers and what helped them successfully rule so much land and to dominate the world of their time. Currently just finished with Persia and Rome. The book spends alot on how tolerance to other nation's ways of life was key but that not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the "glue" as the author puts it. What made them powerful and hold together was bringing in fresh minds and abilities from other cultures but what made Rome last longer still than Persia was that those fresh minds came willingly to Rome, wanting to be Roman. I'm really not explaining that well but maybe the idea will become clearer.
   This sticks with me because today the United States is reaching a point where it is feeling stretched and other nations are rising to compete with it. The simple reason is because the geniuses of those lands are staying there or coming here and then leaving. Even normal people jump the border and take advantage of the culture without identifying with it. Without seeing reason to want to identify with it or want to be American. With this being the case, we are stagnating. So I must ask the question. What can we do to encourage people to want to be American, not just live here but be a part of a greater identity? The Romans gave special privileges for gaining citizenship. What can we offer? I think until we can create a new attraction and glue to the idea of America that brings people to us, we will continue to stagnate. Excluding people (like immigrants) is a problem but so is letting others take without contributing (like illegal immigrants).
  Going off of that I think its been a along time since people have really understood what the idea of America is. It used to be "bring us your sick and weary" and then "anyone can rise from below". Neither of those really apply anymore. Some people try to associated being American with the culture we have established, the middle class, the spending, and the history. If this is the case then we have little hope of others wanting to join is. What does it mean for something to be American or un-American? Perhaps its time we all sat back and tried to find out.