Is America A Success Essay, Research Paper

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.