my 2 cents....is everybody a photographer?

I felt it necessary to put some thoughts out here that would inform others on my personal history, perspective and take on photography and the medium with relevance to the current portrait market. This will obviously be updated frequently as I am unable to sit too still today and unleash all the thoughts I would have related to this new art form. I have been taking photographs for 19 years now and am enjoying the freedom digital photography has so immediately provided, but miss the mystery of waiting for film to be processed as well. I will venture back to film on some personal art studies and collections in the very near future but thought it might prove necessary to touch base on a topic which is fresh off my brain....
Everybody is a photographer these days or are they?
I believe we are all artists and the immediacy digital photography provides offers an affirmation of a good photo or a good eye, however the name lies in the training and expertise on the matter. I always called myself an "aspiring" photographer, as I was very intimidated by the term photographer as it meant SO much to me and I took the name and title very seriously. I have studied photography, displayed in art studios, worked for newspapers, processed in a dark room, been published and awarded a photojournalism award (1995), etc. and during all those times I said "aspiring" because with all the research and love I had devoted to the craft, I believed there was always so much more too learn, technically, artistically, compositional and psychologically.
A good photographer is confident and puts their models and subjects at ease, a good photographer knows their tools and engages with the medium in a relationship where the end result might spit out a darn good "photographer", but I do feel there are so many using the term too loosely today, those who have no training or regard for how far this art form has come. A person gets an SLR (and photoshop these days) and impresses their friend with a good photo and their you are, a photographer, in an instant, in a flash...there is very few professions where this type of self accreditation would hold water. Dont get me wrong, I have no animosity towards these types, but I have high standards and a high regard for the industry and the future of what photography will be. I believe we all could be photographers as we all have different views on the world and see and record life differently and as wedding photographer, Mike Colon says, "there is only one you." Therefore no reason to be jealous of anothers success, etc...but try to see for yourself, and focus less on any copycat antics that might seem enticing in the short term...~aimee