Dear Mr. Buchanan, 

I am sorry that no one from my race has ever shown gratitude for all the of the wonderful things that American has done for us. 

So, here goes: 

I would like to thank American for the opportunity to fight and die for American’s freedom even though many who did so were not themselves free. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of Crispus Attucks the runaway slave who was killed on March 5, 1770 during the Boston Massacre making him the first person to die in the American Revolution. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of the Peter Salem, Cato Stedman, Cuff Whittemore, Cato Wood, Prince Estabrook, Caesar Ferritt, Samuel Craft, Lemuel Haynes, and Pomp Blackman, who fought at Lexington and Concord. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of Peter Salem, Pomp Fisk, Grant Coope, Charleston Eads, Seymour Burr, Titus Coburn, Cuff Hayes, and Caesar Dickenson, and especially Hayes and Ceasar Brown who fought and died at Bunker Hill. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of the 300,000 men of Africa descent who were given the privilege of fighting in the Revolutionary War to demonstrate once and for all time that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of the 650,000 Africans who were brought to this country in chains so that they could contribute to the industrial, commercial and agricultural development of this great nation. 

I would like to thank America on behalf York who assisted his master William Clark in his exploration of the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Territory and the lands of the Pacific Coast. I would also like to thank America on behalf of James Pierson Beckwourth who helped to explore, map and settle the western fontier. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of the 180,000 African Americans who served during the Civil War which culminated in the free of African Americans from chattel bondage. 

I would like to thank America for denying Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to worship freely in white churches so that they would go on to found the African Methodist Episcopal Church which would bring millions into the Christian fellowship with other Americans, a denomination that would go on to found the first African American college. 

I would like to thank America on behalf of the 400,000 African American who volunteered during WWI rather than being lynched in the streets at home. 

I would like to thank American on behalf of the 2.5 million African Americans who served in the US military during WWII, 12,000 of whom were cited for bravery and meritorious service for the opportunity to defeat fascism and to make the world free for democracy, despite the fact that many could not participate in democracy at home. 

I would like to thank America for creating a country of such staggering inequality that African American’s like Martin Luther King, Joseph Lowery, Fred Shuttlesworth, Fanny Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers fought to bring about programs that benefited not only African Americans but poor whites as well. 

And lastly I would like to ask America to excuse me while I become sick from having to remind this great nation that African Americans have nothing for which to be grateful for. Our “debt” to American has been paid in full by our sweat, hard work and sacrifice. If gratitude is forthcoming I would hardly think that it would coming from African Americans.