FREE ESSAY ON IS AMERICA A SUCCESS

IS AMERICA A SUCCESS

At the first of the year Miss Schoonmaker asked us if we thought America was a success or
not. This got me thinking what are we going to learn that will make us think our country
isn't a success? Well throughout the year I learned things that made me believe America
is not a success. Things that made me not believe in America were how we go against
things we pledge. Like the Constitution and how we treated blacks in the Civil Rights
era. Another example is the "American dream". The Dream was all centered primarily around
money. Has it not been said that money is the root of all evil? Do we really believe in a
country that's dream is evil?
I believe the thought of the "American dream" brought us into civil war. The North and
the South both had their views on what the "American dream" was. The Northern States
wanted the American dream achieved for the whole country to be industrial, anti-slavery,
and very federalist. Upon these institutions they planned to make the U.S. a superior
nation in the world. The South wanted to achieve the same ultimate goal for the U.S. but
with agricultural, pro- slavery, and states sovereignty institutions. These are the
differences between both sides in achieving the American Dream. In order to resolve the
conflict of interests, North and South had to go to war to prove superiority thus proving
which side is the city upon the hill" in which the losing side would follow. The
"American dream" later made us build the suburbs like Levittown where the country was
trying to make us all the same. We had the same house just different colors than everyone
else. This all brought up the issue of conformity. America was trying to live up to an
ideal that was not securing the blessings of liberty.
In the best document ever written the opening clause is a big fat lie. It says we will
"...establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity..." Justice was not shown in many cases where a white person had killed a black
person and everyone knew the white person was guilty, but to not suffer from criticizing
the all white jury pled guilty. This was the case in the Emmit Till trial. Emmit spoke to
a white lady and later that night the white ladies' husband and friend kidnaped Emmit and
beat him with a baseball bat. Later Emmit was found in a river. Everyone knew what had
happened to Emmit and who had killed him but the white persons who killed him got off.
They later confessed killing Emmit Till and nothing was done. How is Justice ensured when
we can't even get a fair trial? In the dictionary it says that "a judge should have a
sense of justice." In no way was the United states living up to the ideal of establishing
justice. How is the Nation " insuring domestic tranquillity" in the case of Elian
Gonzalez? Is breaking into a house in the middle of the night with weapons drawn to take
a eight year old boy insuring national calmness? We have a picture of a man with a
machine gun in Elians' face. The Nation woke up to the news in a uproar. Demonstrators
marched for weeks out side of Elians' House. If we were trying to keep the nation calm
why would we do something like this? That is not the way to build up our reputation. If
we are trying to be the "city on a hill" to all other countries why do something like
this? That is not insuring calmness in the Nation.
Our nation has failed on the subject of diversity. The word diversity is closely related
to discrimination. Both mean or have something to do with people of different race,
religion, or sex. It has been said the more diverse a thing is, the more strength it
possess. Than why did America have such a problem with blacks? The south especially
discriminated the blacks and wouldn't even go to the same schools as the blacks, drink
from the same drinking fountains, etc. one example of this is when a group of blacks
would go do sit-ins. This is when they would go into a white restaurant sit at a table
and wait to be served of corse they wouldn't get served so they just sat until the police
came and hauled them off to jail. This is a joke. It would be so much easier if they
would just have served them some food. But no they couldn't do that they had a reputation
to keep up. I can remember when my junior high wanted us to wear uniforms to school. I
know this has its ups and downs but this is taking away the sweet diversity that you can
represent by the clothes you wear. By taking away our freedom to choose the clothes we
wear you are taking a chunk out of who we really are. If you are a skater you wear skate
brand clothes and skate shoes. If you like sports you wear sport memorabilia. So you can
see giving us uniforms takes a chunk out of who we really are. If America wants to be
strengthened , we need to be more diverse and uniforms in school is not the answer.
School uniforms will solve some problems but I think it will create even bigger ones.
One of the biggest mistakes our country has made is putting the phrase "we hold these
truths to be self evident that all men are created equal" into the creed of the nation.
In no way of form has America treated man as equals. The man with money will be treated
with more respect than the lower class man. This will be the case anywhere in the world
but to put that phrase into the creed means a lot but we haven't lived up to what we
said. Martin Luther King recognized this problem and mentioned it in his I have a dream
speech. Blacks weren't treated equal in the civil rights days and to this day there are
groups that aren't treated equal. Even at Timpview Highschool I see it every day. The
latinos or the nerds being picked on by the "Americans". It has to stop and we have to do
something about it. That was Martin Luther King's motivation to stop the discrimination
of black folk. Not just in the south where it was at its worst; but all across America.