Julio Rosas, a U.S. Marine and senior writer for Townhall, spoke with the Daily Caller’s Samantha Renck about his decision to join the Marine Corps Reserve, what being an American means to him and more.
“Even before joining the Marines,” Rosas said, “the Fourth of July was one of my favorite holidays probably – Easter and Christmas are before that. But, one of the reasons why I really love the creation of the United States is that I truly view it as one of the greatest countries on Earth.”
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Rosas added, “Now obviously when I say ‘greatest’ I don’t mean perfect — America is far from perfect — but when you look at the alternatives, especially from that point when we first declared independence it clearly set us down on that path to make things right as we went along.”
Rosas’ family is originally from Mexico, but he was born in the United States.
“Initially, I grew up in a single-parent household and we were below the poverty line,” he said. “It was that way for a large part of my life until my mom got re-married and so that’s when we moved up to the middle class,” which he classified as “one of the first steps into leading to where I am today.”
Rosas dropped out of college during his sophomore year to pursue a career in journalism, yet he felt the combination of his two occupations is “uniquely American in the sense that it really encourages people to chart their own paths.”
“Being an American for me is being able, is taking advantage of those opportunities and utilizing the freedoms, the many freedoms, that we have to go out and do great things.”
Rosas acknowledged the political and social turmoil throughout the United States but emphasized: “it’s that spirit, it’s that set of ideals within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that I think that as long as you’re striving for that and you honor all that I think that’s one of the things that you [do] in order to be an American.”
Rosas discussed further his decision to join the Marines, his love for America and more. (RELATED: Former Special Operations Sniper Nicholas Irving Discusses Military Service, Independence Day)