What Does America Mean to Me?

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, we asked a group of leading Pittsburghers to consider and answer that question. We thank them for giving their thoughts on this important occasion.

MARK WIEDMAN, PRESIDENT, PNC America represents the promise that where you start doesn’t have to define where you end. It’s a country built on reinvention, where each generation moves us closer to our ideals. Pittsburgh reflects that spirit. Once forged by steel and industrial grit, it helped build the backbone of the nation. Today, as a center of innovation, technology, and healthcare, it’s shaping what comes next. Different eras, same purpose: pushing America forward. America is opportunity, resilience, and the confidence that tomorrow can be better than today.

MAGGIE HARDY, OWNER & CEO, 84 LUMBER To me, having grown up in western Pennsylvania with my father, who started 84 Lumber 70 years ago, America means opportunity. Being privately held, we have the opportunity to make a difference for each person we touch in our company, through our customers, associates, vendors, and partners. For example, during Hurricane Katrina (just one of many natural disasters), we were the first boots on the ground to offer support. As America approaches its 250th year, it is our mission to deliver the American Dream to our people, watch them grow, and become future leaders that drive America for the next 250 years.

TAO HE, BOARD DIRECTOR, PITTSBURGH CHINESE CULTURE CENTER As a Chinese immigrant who has lived in Pittsburgh for more than 20 years, America still means opportunities that I never would have had while in China. In China, I was a janitor working at a hotel. In the U.S., I am a CPA working at an over-100-year-old accounting firm. America means faith, which I found in Pittsburgh, and this helped me find my identity and my purpose in life. America means another chance, that I can push the restart button after each failure. I can learn and grow from my failures. America means family, which I am building up with my wife and my beautiful son and daughter. America means that I can forever dream big, work hard and have another chance. Thank you for everything, America. Happy 250th birthday, America. Long live America!

JEFF FINKELSTEIN, PRESIDENT & CEO, JEWISH FEDERATION OF PITTSBURGH For my family, America wasn’t just opportunity; it was survival. All four of my grandparents came to America from Europe in the early 1900s. One, my grandfather Irving, arrived alone in Boston at age 20 with little education and nothing promised. He learned a trade, worked with dignity into his 70s, and built a life rooted in freedom and opportunity. While his family members who remained in Latvia were murdered by the Nazis, his descendants were given a future here. Their survival is America’s promise. I still believe in that promise — as a proud American, and a proud American Jew.

KANAK IYER, FOUNDING PRESIDENT, ASIAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PITTSBURGH The American Dream is why so many of us come here. Did I achieve it? Not in conventional terms. But I have lived life on my own terms — the freedom to pursue a scientific dream. Could I have done that in India? Not at that time; the resources didn’t exist. In America, as a 27-year-old immigrant, I had my “aha” moment in a remarkable laboratory, an opportunity for which I will always be grateful. What followed were challenges: learning how to navigate the system and confronting systemic barriers. Yet none of that stopped me. I became an entrepreneur before I even knew the word, built my own enterprise, and found my way back to science to pursue what once felt impossible. That is what America means to me: possibility, resilience, and opportunity.

REV. PAUL T. ABERNATHY, CEO, NEIGHBORHOOD RESILIENCE PROJECT America is, above all, an idea by which people of goodwill continually form a political union founded on values expressed through radical commitment to honor the God-given dignity of all persons. As Americans, we speak of this union not in the sense of land, ethnicity, language or religion, but rather, as laws that guarantee the free pursuit of beauty, truth and goodness for every human within our borders. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of this nation, I pray that it is the idea of America far more than the history of America that guides us well into our future.

DAN ONORATO, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, HIGHMARK HEALTH & FORMER ALLEGHENY COUNTY EXECUTIVE America is both a promise and a responsibility. It is the promise that where you start doesn’t limit where you can go. Growing up on the North Side of Pittsburgh, I saw how hard work, strong communities, and opportunity can change lives and revive places. America also represents a responsibility to serve others and build institutions that endure. In public service, I’ve learned that responsibility is all about listening, solving real problems, and caring for people when they’re most vulnerable. At 250 years, we continue to shape the promise of this great nation and bear the responsibility of making it better today and tomorrow than it was yesterday.