Stephanie Delatorre (not really anonymous) May 27, 2010 “My America”
As a child, I would never have desired to be or live anywhere other than in America. I grew up living the American dream with a loving home, food always on the table, clothes on my back, and with no worries about anything. I would visit my relatives in Mexico and have a great time, of course, but I remember how unappealing living there seemed. The conditions there are obviously much worse than they are here so to a child, America seemed like a paradise when compared to Mexico. I would always feel such a strong sympathy for my cousins because they did not get to enjoy my paradise, my America. I asked my mom why they didn’t just move to the United States, where they can be secure like us instead of struggling as they were and she told me it was because they couldn‘t, they needed papers that they did not have to live in America. I did not understand what she meant back then but I what I did understand was that they had no choice but to remain ignorant to all the beauty my country held. I remember being a kid and feeling so thankful that I was not experiencing life in their shoes. I’m not a kid anymore, I now realize it was my ignorance, not that of my cousins, making me feel bad. As I grew up, I became a little less ignorant. The news, the internet, the adults all kept me informed of what actually goes on in this country. Behind all the glory there was so much more I had never before bothered to explore. There I discovered all the war, the lies, the hate. I was being forced to see all this, to be awakened from the dream America once was to me. As if America were a rose, the media pointed out its thorns. I realized the presence of thorns is of course inevitable on such a beautiful rose.
When I really chose to take notice of what was going around me was when I was in my American History class. I had a teacher so obviously passionate about what he taught, his passion was contagious. I soon found myself fascinated by the amazing things people before me had done, people much greater than I. The knowledge of all the negative things remained in my mind as well, but I still felt a strong sense of pride when my teacher spoke of our country’s astounding accomplishments. When we spoke of our new America, however, I felt as if we lived on a completely different planet from the America in the textbooks. I learned about the thieves and crooks in office and I was appalled. I had been taught that politicians were originally meant to be average Joes who truly understood honor. It was supposed to remain that this country was ran by a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. I realized that I felt as much shame in the present America as I felt pride for the past America. Despite the fact it’s basically being shoved in my face that the country is in complete disorder, I feel I’m too young to be a cynic. I simply don’t want to accept that this is the way America is and will be now. Some may say I’m just in denial but I look at it as me having hope. I’m not naive enough to believe in the idea of the United States one day becoming a Utopia but I do hope my pride will completely be restored. I understand it may never happen as long as I am alive. All I yearn for now is that dream America once was to me, when ignorance was bliss. My America is currently in a hole we’ve been digging ourselves in for a while now, but a hole I see us capable of climbing out of.
Regardless of what anyone says about America, I always believed we were born in a myopic land of ignorance and hypocrisy. If Americans are truly tired of being kicked around, they would have tried to do something about it by now. Overall society blames everything on the president even though they’ve never been able to experience the pressure he goes through. Imagine trying to make a change in life in any shape or form while having an entire nation depend on you. Everyone has their own opinions on how America should be run, but everyone always looks at the small things that relate to their own life instead of the big picture that will affect everyone’s life. Our nation was built under Catholicism and Christianity beliefs, yet many people believe that our nation should not have any affiliation with religion in government. Society as a whole is supposed to have freedom of speech but we are patronized for saying things that will affect someone else’s freedom or put anyone else down. Society tries to put down the government and blame them for everything that went wrong, but society is what gave them the right to control us; everyone wants different things, so how is one man supposed to make things better for everyone if no one knows exactly what they want. Everything bad that has happened recently, the world trade center collapsing, the loss of jobs, the economy falling, and laws passing to prevent immigrant rights in our country, has happened before. Every twenty or so years the economy falls down and gradually picks itself back up. Similar to when Eisenhower created “operation Wetback”, which sent over two hundred and fifty thousand immigrants out of our country. So if society is afraid of how dominant we are becoming over the rest of the world they should know that without our dominance and control the world would fall into pieces. Haiti, for example, we helped them and are continuing to help them yet we have no money for ourselves and our country is in debt. The United States tries to help the world and yet the world their backs on us when we need them. So what do I think America is? We are the parents of the world, we control and stabilize the world, but yet the rest of the world is like teenager rebelling against us and always badmouthing us, yet we continue to support them. It is no surprise to me for what America is becoming when all we can do is sit around and hope for the best. God bless our America.
Whenever I heard the term “America”, all I would picture was freedom, everyone out in the streets being friendly, and of course people in big houses with great jobs. That was back then, when I used to live in Mexico. My mom, my brother, and I anticipated the weekend when my daddy would come and tell us stories about his life in California and how he was working real hard to get us to that “great place” he lived in. When my daddy got us papers to come live here I was fascinated by the new cites, the opportunities, and the freedom the states offered and what I didn’t know was that I was living my live as an ignorant little girl. Yes, everyday my daddy would bring home money and we would always have food on the table and we were all happy, but what I didn’t know was that my daddy was coming home looking sad every day. I would ask him and all he would answer was that “our country is digging itself into a big hole.” Of course I was small and wouldn’t understand. But soon I started paying attention to my surroundings and came to find out a great disappointment. I understood things weren’t as pretty as they seemed. The jobs here weren’t as “great” as I imagined and neither were the people. There were murders, robberies, threats, and there was the government. The government, the people who we’re supposed to trust with practically our lives, is the ones who I found out is our enemy. All the debts problems giving my daddy headaches and that sad look to his face every day were caused by the government who takes our money and doesn’t even use it to help us, the people earning it out. Then I found out that all the “greatness” about this country was all a joke. All the freedom it announced to be wasn’t anything but slavery getting us to work for this country practically free. I became really disappointed and started wanting to figure out more but the more I tried to figure out the more disappointed I became. Then, when a new president came and assured things were going to change, I got a drop of hope. Only to find out our country is soon to become more capitalist than anything. It frustrates me that many people don’t realize what “great” disasters are going to come. Although there are people here illegally, they’re the ones fighting for our rights. Most of them are fighting for what the people who are legal here deserve. But most of those legals are too ignorant to do much about it. Instead they are too busy trying to get the illegals out instead of paying attention to what really does matter. The problem in this country is that it isn’t really peace, as it claims to be, but it is full of hate. Hate, prejudice, and racism and it is really sad knowing the place you once dreamt of was all just that, a dream. It is a dream that is soon to become a nightmare full of hate, wars, and slavery. All the opportunities are going to waste and all the dreams our ancestors had of this place are going down the drains also. Our founding fathers had a hope of finally having a place of freedom, peace, and love; but there are selfish people out there who are destroying that. I just wish that someday we all team up, not to destroy, but to revive “Our America.”
Many Americans (myself included) have been lead to believe that America has always been a "racist" nation. It's not true.
We've been deceived. Our leaders and educators have misinformed us -- for their own political, social and financial purposes.
True, certain groups have competed with others. But that has always been the case. (Competition is a human trait, not merely an American one.) Racial and cultural conflict and competition have been around forever.
Still, our government leaders, our media, maybe even our teachers, have lied to us (or else they themselves have been misinformed). They've told us (especially we black Americans) that we have always been "victims" of oppression and racism.
Now we're being told that Hispanics are the new "slaves", the latest "victims" of "white American oppression". While it is true that Hispanics are currently being taken advantage of and used (like slaves) to the economic advantage of others, it's not because of racism.
It's because of greed.
Watch this episode of The Glenn Beck Show (http://www.watchglennbeck.com/video/2010/May/Glenn-Beck-Show-May-21-2010-Founders-Friday-Revisionist-History/). You'll learn things you never imagined about America's "racism".
You may even feel a little bit prouder to be an American.
Irene Piñon June 2, 2010 “My America” While growing I believed I was very lucky to be living in a country as great as America, where one is free. I believed that I was so fortunate to live in a country full of opportunity. For many years, I believed America to be the “promise land.” I loved my country and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I used to believe in what they said, “That things were so much better here.” I’m Hispanic and of course much of my family lives in Mexico. Seeing their lifestyle in Mexico made me appreciate my way of life here in the United States. I used to compare my life to theirs, thinking that I had it made here in the U.S. I remember them thinking of that our life was so much better compared to theirs. For some time, I actually believed them. I was so ignorant of how life really was in America while I was a child that I was foolish, like most children are. America is supposed to be a land of freedom, which I believed for many years to be. Our America was built by people who immigrated here. Without those immigrants, America would have never been. This country is full immigrants; everyone’s ancestors came from somewhere else. How can the government make new immigration laws, where they are sending the Mexicans back to Mexico? Our ancestors came to America for a better life, for freedom. The promise of America is freedom, a word that has obviously lost meaning in our country. I don’t believe the immigrants to be the cause of our nation’s downfall, if anything they are the cause of our progress over the years. It is ridiculous how anyone can come to the conclusion that the immigrants are to blame for all of our problems . People gathered together from different cultures is what makes America; at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. Our differences in cultures and beliefs is what has made this country progress. The government has become so corrupt to the extent of where our freedom no longer exists. The government has been cheating us out of our hard earned money that goes who knows where. This country, our America, was once the leading nation of the world and now we are in so much debt that our descendants for many years to come will have to pay the price. The money that the government takes away from us is supposed to go to a good cause, but we Americans have not seen it even once. Some people decide to put the blame on our new president for many of the problems that exist, such as our debt, but how can he be the cause if he just came into office. . Of course the government has been corrupt and I agree that they are the main cause of our debt. They are the cause of many problems, but not all of them. If you want to blame the government, then go right ahead, but it will get you nowhere. We, as Americans elected them and gave them the power that they have now. So go ahead, blame them, but you share part of the blame as well. Many bad things have occurred in our country over the years, such as our debt. I do not believe it to be the fault of just one person or a group of people. Our problems in America are nothing new. Many catastrophes will occur in our lifetime but that is just the way life is. Our economy will fall again and again but it will also go back up. The main problem in our country, in my opinion, is that everyone wants to put the blame on someone else when sometimes there is no one to put the blame on. We Americans need to learn to work together to overcome our problems and to put aside our many differences. It is very easy and simple to put the blame on someone else and that is why so many do it. But the truth of the matter is that we are all to blame for our nation’s problems. Many nations have problems; we are not the only ones. We all need to stick it out, the hard times will pass eventually and our hard work will pay off. We just need to stick together and not give up the fight. Together, as a nation, we could fix America to how it was meant to be, “the land of the free.”
Can America be really be falling? Is our nation really in peril? I think so. Blackmail, deceit, and trickery have become an art in Washington, D.C, the land where our leaders are supposed to help solve our national problems instead if fueling the flames of deceit. Where is our president during all this? The man who took an oath to protect the Unites States? He is on the side of the people (such as Mexico’s president) degrading the nation with a smile. What has happened to this nation? How far have we strayed from the signers of the Declaration of Independence? Many people are currently unemployed. We are spiraling downwards the deadly path to socialism, soon unto communism. The school systems are at its worst in America, which causes the next generation of Americans to suffer. If the lack of education for a major group of kids continues, Mr. Lamm’s prophecy of ruining America would be eerily close. If a country stands with uneducated people, it simply will not succeed. Our founding fathers were educated, resourceful, and wise. This is why America quickly became a success, because its pillars were based on knowledge and a deep understanding of history. If we block this out to the future generation, this ‘tradition’ will eventually vanish, until we have wealthy monkeys ruling the country. For example, take the current situations in Cuba. The country is in ruins because of unwise men seeking power. The people suffer; the people are in chains, forever bounded to this oppression of ‘equality’. Third world countries have extremely few educated people, which dramatically delay their chances of ever progressing. Another example is Saudi Arabia. Traditions have kept half of the population (women) uneducated. Time seemed to freeze as this nation could not accept universal modern acceptances of a woman’s duty. Today, Saudi Arabia is giving more choices to women. Although they still can’t legally drive, women are gradually rising to power, and may someday be as equal as men, despite traditional taboos.
Just like Saudi Arabia has its extremist laws against women, countries have an inner sense of pride and individuality. It is seen as weak for a leader to so highly depend on others, and thus, nations generally do not ask for help from others unless absolutely necessary. Our founding fathers truly wanted to be free from Great Britain. People left Britain because needs were not met. Maybe they were starving in the streets, their religion wasn’t accepted, or maybe there just wasn’t enough freedom. Once in America, one could really be free. But turbulent dark times are ahead of us, and our current liberty and privacy may vanish. Obama is following the ways of a socialist Europe, something that was never intended to happen. Sure, it starts out as something simple and draped in positivism, like free healthcare, and evolves into something else. This is happening now. The worst of all, people are accepting lies by the government and living by them. They do not know what can happen in the future, and thus, do nothing. The common people are buried in a casket of ignorance, playing as a puppet controlled by the evil hands of radicals. Is this fair? Does voting for someone in office mean they can take over your life? The history texts in Texas were to be rewritten, maybe substituting partial truth with complete lies. This has been done in the past for mainly one reason: controlling the masses. Communist China did this, as well as Germany during Hitler’s reign. Both of those authoritarian nations, especially Germany, controlled the mass with education (by re-writing textbooks for their convenience), highly promoted jingoism, and completely ruled over the common folk. Controlling common knowledge is the first step to complete totalitarian domination. Innocent children can be taught the most heinous acts and act guiltlessly upon them; because that is the way they have been taught. If the government controls history to their own advantage, even the vilest of acts can be excused, accepted, and ultimately encouraged. Today I think of this situation, and a feeling of fear and excitement rush over me. What will the future hold in store for us? Historically speaking, every great nation has its problems; it is impossible to say the converse. But great nations may also fall. Ancient Rome collapsed due to corruption, enemy invasions, and weak leaders. It started out strong, and gradually fell because the leaders were weak and inexperienced. China, who was perhaps the greatest nation in the Ancient World, a nation with a vast, rich culture, a nation with educated and wise men, ideals, and revolutionary inventions partially fell when one of its rulers decided to isolate China. Afterwards, it suffered complete blows from communism, revolutions, and wars. Today, this country is getting back up on its feet and may someday be free. Are we really going to be next to fall? Here’s what I think. We may be in peril, but miracles exist. Maybe we can still make a sharp turn to avoid falling into a cliff. We as Americans, have survived the Civil War, which literally cut America in half. We Americans survived the Great Depression and fully recovered from the worst. We as Americans were in the lead of the two World Wars. We Americans aren’t some inhabitants of a little unknown island nation of the coast of Africa. We are the jewel of the world. Living here is a dream to many, living here is almost like a blessing. Every nation has its ups and downs. Maybe we are just going down a little steeper in this roller coaster, but we will hopefully overcome the forces and go back up. We as Americans have a rich culture of diversity but also of unity – overcoming the worst and continuing on. No one can seriously expect a prefect form of government from a mortal human being. For now, it is just something beyond our capabilities. There is something in the future for humanity, for all of us…and these turbulences are just the beginning of a long journey ahead.
I am greatly impressed by the faith, good character, knowledge and sentiment of those who have expressed their opinions here. If YOU are the America of the future, we have a BRIGHT future, indeed! I applaud your thoughtful expressions.
Now go forward. Help our nation fulfill its promise as the lamp of liberty, lighting the way for all the world to follow (not by coercing, not by "nation-building", no by enacting more laws, but leading BY EXAMPLE).
LET FREEDOM RING!
Let Americans earn AND KEEP (or give away, as they choose) the bounty of their labors. Let the weak be strengthened by the VOLUNTARY charity of the strong. Let people choose for themselves how they wish to live their lives (so long as they do not hurt others). Let the boot of government oppression and confiscatory taxation be removed from the necks of the people. Let thrift, selflessness and personal responsibility be our mantra, not extravagance, licentiousness and an entitlement mentality that have too long been our national creed.
I believe, as do many of you, that our nation will, once again, be set aright. BECAUSE OF YOU. I believe that the current crop of Americans will save this country. Because you know what it can become if we do not choose wisely and follow the course that has, historically, so favored this nation.
Ok, so America is falling apart. Do Americans care? Nope. Not from what I see. When I first heard about this "economic downfall" and the whole "america is falling apart" talk, I didn't really want to believe it. Who wants to sit in class and hear that our country is gonna fall apart? Certainly I don't. But somewhere along the way, I started to worry about where our country was going. Where IS it going? How do we stop it? And where in the world are our country's 'leaders' to try and do something about it?!
Unfortunately, the 'leaders' are living it up with our taxes, buying million dollar homes, and oh yeah agreeing with other countries instead of our own. One thing that truly dissapoints me is that there may some lies being put out in textbooks for students everywhere to read. How will future students know what truly happened? Will they ever know of the founding fathers of what used to be the greatest country in the world?
I find it interesting that the president came from being absolutely loved to strongly disliked. And sadly, he has himself to blame. There were so many promises made. Many people finally thought the many problems this country was facing were going to solved when he came into office. Finally we had hope. Goodness was that a slap in the face to many of us. I don't think I've seen any good change since he's come into office. I truly did use to look up to the people in Washington D.C. But now it turns out they have just been lying to us, and the lies are just starting pile up and we have finally caught on. But sadly, as I declared in the beginning of my essay, many people still don't know what's going on and don't care.
"My America". What more can I say? It's been the land of dreams, where people can find hope. I do come from a family of immigrants. And have we worked hard to get to where we are today. This country is made up different cultures, different epople, and thats what makes this America. People are always complaining about illegal immigrants. Or how California is now "mexifornia". People need to open their eyes and know that many times immigrants come here to work, to make a better life for themselves, like my own family. And not just from Mexico. They come from Canada, Europe, you name it.
We need to educate people on what's going on now.Truly, we need to make a difference. It's a cloudy future, America. We need to get our act together and do something about this. We need to restore our home. Not just for us, but for future Americans.
America the land of the free and the brave or is it really? Free to a certain point where we don’t know how much that freedom is costing us .We are slowly being trapped in to something big and yet a lot of people don’t know about what is really going on in America which is quite scary. Making us Americans weak and not brave were lies of the government are slowly being discovered. I was once part of the people that yet didn’t know of what was really happening in my America. Everything about my country was told like fairy tales were nothing really went wrong. When I was a child I remember the teacher telling us that the pledge of allegiance had to be learning as well as other American folk songs as if this country was fascists. I really didn’t mind because all those thing help me too honor my country every fourth of July when my family and I would go out and celebrate Americas independence. I felt uncomfortable with my family honoring something that was not part of my culture and knew little of, but yet not my culture that was rich with history. I started to grow up and little by little I started to see the other side of the story. Were some things are corrupt and not very pleasant. All the hate the lies the racism started to come out and started eating me and all of us alive. I faced racism first hand in a place that I would have never expected. Just last year my sister and I were at Disneyland where some say is the happiest place on earth well that time became the worst place on earth . My sister and I were standing in line for a ride we were standing behind two white ladies. They change their subject to something that was very mean. The first lady said to the second lady you want to know what I really hate the second lady said what Mexicans she said. The second lady said shut up there is some right behind us I felt telling them off but I was always thought to be respect full to my elders I felt strongly discriminated by what I looked like. From that day I felt uncomfortable to know that were not welcome here, and of course who likes being in a place that there not welcomed. Another of my thoughts was that how discrimination was evolving it were not the African Americans this time but the Hispanics. That was just a start soon I was going to learn a lot more. It was surprising that were I learned all the truth of the American government was not in my world history class but in my science class. My world history teacher still thinks that America is in the lead like it used to be, but that’s the sad news about American schools we just don’t learn enough they just teach us the stuff that benefits them. My science teacher told me a lot of the secrets the American government has it was like if he was opening my world history book and telling us page by page also he told us a lot of new stuff . I just really wish that this fairytale has a happy ending.
this is a repost i expaned it like you advice me too ~~~
America the land of the free and the brave or is it really? Free to a certain point where we don’t know how much that freedom is costing us .We are slowly being trapped in to something big and yet a lot of people don’t know about what is really going on in America which is quite scary. Making us Americans weak and not brave were lies of the government are slowly being discovered. I was once part of the people that yet didn’t know of what was really happening in my America. Everything about my country was told to me like fairy tales were it is the beginning were every things turns out perfectly happy .When I was a child I remember the teacher telling us that the pledge of allegiance had to be learning as well as other American folk songs. I really didn’t mind because all those thing help me too honor my country every fourth of July when my family and I would go out and celebrate Americas independence. I felt uncomfortable with my family honoring something that was not part of my culture and knew little of, but yet not my culture that was rich with history. I started to grow up and little by little I started to see the other side of the story. Were some things are corrupt and not very pleasant. All the hate the lies the racism started to come out and started eating me and all of us alive. I faced racism first hand in a place that I would have never expected. Just last year my sister and I were at Disneyland where some say is the happiest place on earth well that time became the worst place on earth . My sister and I were standing in line for a ride we were standing behind two white ladies. They change their subject to something that was very mean. The first lady said to the second lady you want to know what I really hate the second lady said what Mexicans she said. The second lady said shut up there is some right behind us she also added if you don’t like them you should not live in southern California there’s a whole lot of them here I felt telling them off but I was always thought to be respect full to my elders. I felt strongly discriminated by what they said only by the way I looked like. From that day I felt uncomfortable to know that were not welcome here, and of course who likes being in a place that there not welcomed. Another of my thoughts was that how discrimination was evolving it were not the African Americans this time but the Hispanics. That was just a start soon I was going to learn a lot more. It was surprising that were I learned all the truth of the American government not in my world history class but in my science class. My world history teacher still thinks that America is in the lead like it used to be, but that’s the sad news about American schools we just don’t learn enough they just teach us the information that benefits them and yet still they sometimes twist the books. My science teacher told me a lot of the secrets the American government. In the class my science teacher would talk about how the economy was even worse than they would say in the news he said that “we were in so much debt that we are like slaves working to pay it off and that will not even help because we will not live long enough to pay it off, which is just terrifying to know that we will never be able to get out of debt which our freedom was left way back in time. He also told us that here in the U.S there is no privacy that they could read your email text messages and all your privacy and they can even put you in jail if they suspect that you’re a terrorist. When he told me this information I was shocked and didn’t want to believe him but yet all those things were true. America is at the bottom of the ocean and we are all going to down with America. Let’s just have hope that America was told to me like a fairytale were we are in the middle were everything goes wrong and comes to a happy ending.
Stephanie Delatorre (not really anonymous)
ReplyDeleteMay 27, 2010
“My America”
As a child, I would never have desired to be or live anywhere other than in America. I grew up living the American dream with a loving home, food always on the table, clothes on my back, and with no worries about anything. I would visit my relatives in Mexico and have a great time, of course, but I remember how unappealing living there seemed. The conditions there are obviously much worse than they are here so to a child, America seemed like a paradise when compared to Mexico. I would always feel such a strong sympathy for my cousins because they did not get to enjoy my paradise, my America. I asked my mom why they didn’t just move to the United States, where they can be secure like us instead of struggling as they were and she told me it was because they couldn‘t, they needed papers that they did not have to live in America. I did not understand what she meant back then but I what I did understand was that they had no choice but to remain ignorant to all the beauty my country held. I remember being a kid and feeling so thankful that I was not experiencing life in their shoes. I’m not a kid anymore, I now realize it was my ignorance, not that of my cousins, making me feel bad.
As I grew up, I became a little less ignorant. The news, the internet, the adults all kept me informed of what actually goes on in this country. Behind all the glory there was so much more I had never before bothered to explore. There I discovered all the war, the lies, the hate. I was being forced to see all this, to be awakened from the dream America once was to me. As if America were a rose, the media pointed out its thorns. I realized the presence of thorns is of course inevitable on such a beautiful rose.
When I really chose to take notice of what was going around me was when I was in my American History class. I had a teacher so obviously passionate about what he taught, his passion was contagious. I soon found myself fascinated by the amazing things people before me had done, people much greater than I. The knowledge of all the negative things remained in my mind as well, but I still felt a strong sense of pride when my teacher spoke of our country’s astounding accomplishments. When we spoke of our new America, however, I felt as if we lived on a completely different planet from the America in the textbooks. I learned about the thieves and crooks in office and I was appalled. I had been taught that politicians were originally meant to be average Joes who truly understood honor. It was supposed to remain that this country was ran by a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. I realized that I felt as much shame in the present America as I felt pride for the past America.
Despite the fact it’s basically being shoved in my face that the country is in complete disorder, I feel I’m too young to be a cynic. I simply don’t want to accept that this is the way America is and will be now. Some may say I’m just in denial but I look at it as me having hope. I’m not naive enough to believe in the idea of the United States one day becoming a Utopia but I do hope my pride will completely be restored. I understand it may never happen as long as I am alive. All I yearn for now is that dream America once was to me, when ignorance was bliss. My America is currently in a hole we’ve been digging ourselves in for a while now, but a hole I see us capable of climbing out of.
Wow, Stephanie. That was an AWESOME essay! Thank you for sharing that with me, with all of us. That was inspiring!
ReplyDeleteJasmine Magallon
ReplyDeleteJune 1, 2010
My “America”
Regardless of what anyone says about America, I always believed we were born in a myopic land of ignorance and hypocrisy. If Americans are truly tired of being kicked around, they would have tried to do something about it by now. Overall society blames everything on the president even though they’ve never been able to experience the pressure he goes through.
Imagine trying to make a change in life in any shape or form while having an entire nation depend on you. Everyone has their own opinions on how America should be run, but everyone always looks at the small things that relate to their own life instead of the big picture that will affect everyone’s life. Our nation was built under Catholicism and Christianity beliefs, yet many people believe that our nation should not have any affiliation with religion in government. Society as a whole is supposed to have freedom of speech but we are patronized for saying things that will affect someone else’s freedom or put anyone else down.
Society tries to put down the government and blame them for everything that went wrong, but society is what gave them the right to control us; everyone wants different things, so how is one man supposed to make things better for everyone if no one knows exactly what they want. Everything bad that has happened recently, the world trade center collapsing, the loss of jobs, the economy falling, and laws passing to prevent immigrant rights in our country, has happened before. Every twenty or so years the economy falls down and gradually picks itself back up. Similar to when Eisenhower created “operation Wetback”, which sent over two hundred and fifty thousand immigrants out of our country. So if society is afraid of how dominant we are becoming over the rest of the world they should know that without our dominance and control the world would fall into pieces. Haiti, for example, we helped them and are continuing to help them yet we have no money for ourselves and our country is in debt. The United States tries to help the world and yet the world their backs on us when we need them.
So what do I think America is? We are the parents of the world, we control and stabilize the world, but yet the rest of the world is like teenager rebelling against us and always badmouthing us, yet we continue to support them. It is no surprise to me for what America is becoming when all we can do is sit around and hope for the best. God bless our America.
Danya Herrera
ReplyDeleteJune 1, 2010
“My America”
Whenever I heard the term “America”, all I would picture was freedom, everyone out in the streets being friendly, and of course people in big houses with great jobs. That was back then, when I used to live in Mexico. My mom, my brother, and I anticipated the weekend when my daddy would come and tell us stories about his life in California and how he was working real hard to get us to that “great place” he lived in. When my daddy got us papers to come live here I was fascinated by the new cites, the opportunities, and the freedom the states offered and what I didn’t know was that I was living my live as an ignorant little girl. Yes, everyday my daddy would bring home money and we would always have food on the table and we were all happy, but what I didn’t know was that my daddy was coming home looking sad every day. I would ask him and all he would answer was that “our country is digging itself into a big hole.” Of course I was small and wouldn’t understand. But soon I started paying attention to my surroundings and came to find out a great disappointment. I understood things weren’t as pretty as they seemed. The jobs here weren’t as “great” as I imagined and neither were the people. There were murders, robberies, threats, and there was the government.
The government, the people who we’re supposed to trust with practically our lives, is the ones who I found out is our enemy. All the debts problems giving my daddy headaches and that sad look to his face every day were caused by the government who takes our money and doesn’t even use it to help us, the people earning it out. Then I found out that all the “greatness” about this country was all a joke. All the freedom it announced to be wasn’t anything but slavery getting us to work for this country practically free. I became really disappointed and started wanting to figure out more but the more I tried to figure out the more disappointed I became. Then, when a new president came and assured things were going to change, I got a drop of hope. Only to find out our country is soon to become more capitalist than anything. It frustrates me that many people don’t realize what “great” disasters are going to come. Although there are people here illegally, they’re the ones fighting for our rights. Most of them are fighting for what the people who are legal here deserve. But most of those legals are too ignorant to do much about it. Instead they are too busy trying to get the illegals out instead of paying attention to what really does matter. The problem in this country is that it isn’t really peace, as it claims to be, but it is full of hate. Hate, prejudice, and racism and it is really sad knowing the place you once dreamt of was all just that, a dream. It is a dream that is soon to become a nightmare full of hate, wars, and slavery. All the opportunities are going to waste and all the dreams our ancestors had of this place are going down the drains also. Our founding fathers had a hope of finally having a place of freedom, peace, and love; but there are selfish people out there who are destroying that. I just wish that someday we all team up, not to destroy, but to revive “Our America.”
Many Americans (myself included) have been lead to believe that America has always been a "racist" nation. It's not true.
ReplyDeleteWe've been deceived. Our leaders and educators have misinformed us -- for their own political, social and financial purposes.
True, certain groups have competed with others. But that has always been the case. (Competition is a human trait, not merely an American one.) Racial and cultural conflict and competition have been around forever.
Still, our government leaders, our media, maybe even our teachers, have lied to us (or else they themselves have been misinformed). They've told us (especially we black Americans) that we have always been "victims" of oppression and racism.
Now we're being told that Hispanics are the new "slaves", the latest "victims" of "white American oppression". While it is true that Hispanics are currently being taken advantage of and used (like slaves) to the economic advantage of others, it's not because of racism.
It's because of greed.
Watch this episode of The Glenn Beck Show (http://www.watchglennbeck.com/video/2010/May/Glenn-Beck-Show-May-21-2010-Founders-Friday-Revisionist-History/). You'll learn things you never imagined about America's "racism".
You may even feel a little bit prouder to be an American.
Irene Piñon
ReplyDeleteJune 2, 2010
“My America”
While growing I believed I was very lucky to be living in a country as great as America, where one is free. I believed that I was so fortunate to live in a country full of opportunity. For many years, I believed America to be the “promise land.” I loved my country and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I used to believe in what they said, “That things were so much better here.” I’m Hispanic and of course much of my family lives in Mexico. Seeing their lifestyle in Mexico made me appreciate my way of life here in the United States. I used to compare my life to theirs, thinking that I had it made here in the U.S. I remember them thinking of that our life was so much better compared to theirs. For some time, I actually believed them. I was so ignorant of how life really was in America while I was a child that I was foolish, like most children are.
America is supposed to be a land of freedom, which I believed for many years to be. Our America was built by people who immigrated here. Without those immigrants, America would have never been. This country is full immigrants; everyone’s ancestors came from somewhere else. How can the government make new immigration laws, where they are sending the Mexicans back to Mexico? Our ancestors came to America for a better life, for freedom. The promise of America is freedom, a word that has obviously lost meaning in our country. I don’t believe the immigrants to be the cause of our nation’s downfall, if anything they are the cause of our progress over the years. It is ridiculous how anyone can come to the conclusion that the immigrants are to blame for all of our problems . People gathered together from different cultures is what makes America; at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. Our differences in cultures and beliefs is what has made this country progress.
The government has become so corrupt to the extent of where our freedom no longer exists. The government has been cheating us out of our hard earned money that goes who knows where. This country, our America, was once the leading nation of the world and now we are in so much debt that our descendants for many years to come will have to pay the price. The money that the government takes away from us is supposed to go to a good cause, but we Americans have not seen it even once. Some people decide to put the blame on our new president for many of the problems that exist, such as our debt, but how can he be the cause if he just came into office. . Of course the government has been corrupt and I agree that they are the main cause of our debt. They are the cause of many problems, but not all of them. If you want to blame the government, then go right ahead, but it will get you nowhere. We, as Americans elected them and gave them the power that they have now. So go ahead, blame them, but you share part of the blame as well.
Many bad things have occurred in our country over the years, such as our debt. I do not believe it to be the fault of just one person or a group of people. Our problems in America are nothing new. Many catastrophes will occur in our lifetime but that is just the way life is. Our economy will fall again and again but it will also go back up. The main problem in our country, in my opinion, is that everyone wants to put the blame on someone else when sometimes there is no one to put the blame on. We Americans need to learn to work together to overcome our problems and to put aside our many differences. It is very easy and simple to put the blame on someone else and that is why so many do it. But the truth of the matter is that we are all to blame for our nation’s problems. Many nations have problems; we are not the only ones. We all need to stick it out, the hard times will pass eventually and our hard work will pay off. We just need to stick together and not give up the fight. Together, as a nation, we could fix America to how it was meant to be, “the land of the free.”
Karhen-Len Lizarraga
ReplyDeleteJune 4, 2010
“My America”
Can America be really be falling? Is our nation really in peril? I think so. Blackmail, deceit, and trickery have become an art in Washington, D.C, the land where our leaders are supposed to help solve our national problems instead if fueling the flames of deceit. Where is our president during all this? The man who took an oath to protect the Unites States? He is on the side of the people (such as Mexico’s president) degrading the nation with a smile. What has happened to this nation? How far have we strayed from the signers of the Declaration of Independence?
Many people are currently unemployed. We are spiraling downwards the deadly path to socialism, soon unto communism. The school systems are at its worst in America, which causes the next generation of Americans to suffer. If the lack of education for a major group of kids continues, Mr. Lamm’s prophecy of ruining America would be eerily close. If a country stands with uneducated people, it simply will not succeed. Our founding fathers were educated, resourceful, and wise. This is why America quickly became a success, because its pillars were based on knowledge and a deep understanding of history. If we block this out to the future generation, this ‘tradition’ will eventually vanish, until we have wealthy monkeys ruling the country. For example, take the current situations in Cuba. The country is in ruins because of unwise men seeking power. The people suffer; the people are in chains, forever bounded to this oppression of ‘equality’. Third world countries have extremely few educated people, which dramatically delay their chances of ever progressing. Another example is Saudi Arabia. Traditions have kept half of the population (women) uneducated. Time seemed to freeze as this nation could not accept universal modern acceptances of a woman’s duty. Today, Saudi Arabia is giving more choices to women. Although they still can’t legally drive, women are gradually rising to power, and may someday be as equal as men, despite traditional taboos.
Continued...
ReplyDeleteJust like Saudi Arabia has its extremist laws against women, countries have an inner sense of pride and individuality. It is seen as weak for a leader to so highly depend on others, and thus, nations generally do not ask for help from others unless absolutely necessary. Our founding fathers truly wanted to be free from Great Britain. People left Britain because needs were not met. Maybe they were starving in the streets, their religion wasn’t accepted, or maybe there just wasn’t enough freedom. Once in America, one could really be free. But turbulent dark times are ahead of us, and our current liberty and privacy may vanish. Obama is following the ways of a socialist Europe, something that was never intended to happen. Sure, it starts out as something simple and draped in positivism, like free healthcare, and evolves into something else. This is happening now. The worst of all, people are accepting lies by the government and living by them. They do not know what can happen in the future, and thus, do nothing. The common people are buried in a casket of ignorance, playing as a puppet controlled by the evil hands of radicals. Is this fair? Does voting for someone in office mean they can take over your life?
The history texts in Texas were to be rewritten, maybe substituting partial truth with complete lies. This has been done in the past for mainly one reason: controlling the masses. Communist China did this, as well as Germany during Hitler’s reign. Both of those authoritarian nations, especially Germany, controlled the mass with education (by re-writing textbooks for their convenience), highly promoted jingoism, and completely ruled over the common folk. Controlling common knowledge is the first step to complete totalitarian domination. Innocent children can be taught the most heinous acts and act guiltlessly upon them; because that is the way they have been taught. If the government controls history to their own advantage, even the vilest of acts can be excused, accepted, and ultimately encouraged. Today I think of this situation, and a feeling of fear and excitement rush over me. What will the future hold in store for us? Historically speaking, every great nation has its problems; it is impossible to say the converse. But great nations may also fall. Ancient Rome collapsed due to corruption, enemy invasions, and weak leaders. It started out strong, and gradually fell because the leaders were weak and inexperienced. China, who was perhaps the greatest nation in the Ancient World, a nation with a vast, rich culture, a nation with educated and wise men, ideals, and revolutionary inventions partially fell when one of its rulers decided to isolate China. Afterwards, it suffered complete blows from communism, revolutions, and wars. Today, this country is getting back up on its feet and may someday be free.
Are we really going to be next to fall? Here’s what I think. We may be in peril, but miracles exist. Maybe we can still make a sharp turn to avoid falling into a cliff. We as Americans, have survived the Civil War, which literally cut America in half. We Americans survived the Great Depression and fully recovered from the worst. We as Americans were in the lead of the two World Wars. We Americans aren’t some inhabitants of a little unknown island nation of the coast of Africa. We are the jewel of the world. Living here is a dream to many, living here is almost like a blessing. Every nation has its ups and downs. Maybe we are just going down a little steeper in this roller coaster, but we will hopefully overcome the forces and go back up. We as Americans have a rich culture of diversity but also of unity – overcoming the worst and continuing on. No one can seriously expect a prefect form of government from a mortal human being. For now, it is just something beyond our capabilities. There is something in the future for humanity, for all of us…and these turbulences are just the beginning of a long journey ahead.
Jeez does everyone have to bring up Mexico? We are talking about AMERICA!!!
ReplyDeleteI am greatly impressed by the faith, good character, knowledge and sentiment of those who have expressed their opinions here. If YOU are the America of the future, we have a BRIGHT future, indeed! I applaud your thoughtful expressions.
ReplyDeleteNow go forward. Help our nation fulfill its promise as the lamp of liberty, lighting the way for all the world to follow (not by coercing, not by "nation-building", no by enacting more laws, but leading BY EXAMPLE).
LET FREEDOM RING!
Let Americans earn AND KEEP (or give away, as they choose) the bounty of their labors. Let the weak be strengthened by the VOLUNTARY charity of the strong. Let people choose for themselves how they wish to live their lives (so long as they do not hurt others). Let the boot of government oppression and confiscatory taxation be removed from the necks of the people. Let thrift, selflessness and personal responsibility be our mantra, not extravagance, licentiousness and an entitlement mentality that have too long been our national creed.
I believe, as do many of you, that our nation will, once again, be set aright. BECAUSE OF YOU. I believe that the current crop of Americans will save this country. Because you know what it can become if we do not choose wisely and follow the course that has, historically, so favored this nation.
Thank you for making your voices heard.
Ok, so America is falling apart. Do Americans care? Nope. Not from what I see. When I first heard about this "economic downfall" and the whole "america is falling apart" talk, I didn't really want to believe it. Who wants to sit in class and hear that our country is gonna fall apart? Certainly I don't. But somewhere along the way, I started to worry about where our country was going. Where IS it going? How do we stop it? And where in the world are our country's 'leaders' to try and do something about it?!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the 'leaders' are living it up with our taxes, buying million dollar homes, and oh yeah agreeing with other countries instead of our own. One thing that truly dissapoints me is that there may some lies being put out in textbooks for students everywhere to read. How will future students know what truly happened? Will they ever know of the founding fathers of what used to be the greatest country in the world?
I find it interesting that the president came from being absolutely loved to strongly disliked. And sadly, he has himself to blame. There were so many promises made. Many people finally thought the many problems this country was facing were going to solved when he came into office. Finally we had hope. Goodness was that a slap in the face to many of us. I don't think I've seen any good change since he's come into office. I truly did use to look up to the people in Washington D.C. But now it turns out they have just been lying to us, and the lies are just starting pile up and we have finally caught on. But sadly, as I declared in the beginning of my essay, many people still don't know what's going on and don't care.
"My America". What more can I say? It's been the land of dreams, where people can find hope. I do come from a family of immigrants. And have we worked hard to get to where we are today. This country is made up different cultures, different epople, and thats what makes this America. People are always complaining about illegal immigrants. Or how California is now "mexifornia". People need to open their eyes and know that many times immigrants come here to work, to make a better life for themselves, like my own family. And not just from Mexico. They come from Canada, Europe, you name it.
We need to educate people on what's going on now.Truly, we need to make a difference. It's a cloudy future, America. We need to get our act together and do something about this. We need to restore our home. Not just for us, but for future Americans.
ReplyDeleteAmerica the land of the free and the brave or is it really? Free to a certain point where we don’t know how much that freedom is costing us .We are slowly being trapped in to something big and yet a lot of people don’t know about what is really going on in America which is quite scary. Making us Americans weak and not brave were lies of the government are slowly being discovered. I was once part of the people that yet didn’t know of what was really happening in my America.
ReplyDeleteEverything about my country was told like fairy tales were nothing really went wrong. When I was a child I remember the teacher telling us that the pledge of allegiance had to be learning as well as other American folk songs as if this country was fascists. I really didn’t mind because all those thing help me too honor my country every fourth of July when my family and I would go out and celebrate Americas independence. I felt uncomfortable with my family honoring something that was not part of my culture and knew little of, but yet not my culture that was rich with history. I started to grow up and little by little I started to see the other side of the story. Were some things are corrupt and not very pleasant. All the hate the lies the racism started to come out and started eating me and all of us alive. I faced racism first hand in a place that I would have never expected.
Just last year my sister and I were at Disneyland where some say is the happiest place on earth well that time became the worst place on earth . My sister and I were standing in line for a ride we were standing behind two white ladies. They change their subject to something that was very mean. The first lady said to the second lady you want to know what I really hate the second lady said what Mexicans she said. The second lady said shut up there is some right behind us I felt telling them off but I was always thought to be respect full to my elders I felt strongly discriminated by what I looked like. From that day I felt uncomfortable to know that were not welcome here, and of course who likes being in a place that there not welcomed. Another of my thoughts was that how discrimination was evolving it were not the African Americans this time but the Hispanics. That was just a start soon I was going to learn a lot more.
It was surprising that were I learned all the truth of the American government was not in my world history class but in my science class. My world history teacher still thinks that America is in the lead like it used to be, but that’s the sad news about American schools we just don’t learn enough they just teach us the stuff that benefits them. My science teacher told me a lot of the secrets the American government has it was like if he was opening my world history book and telling us page by page also he told us a lot of new stuff . I just really wish that this fairytale has a happy ending.
this is a repost i expaned it like you advice me too ~~~
ReplyDeleteAmerica the land of the free and the brave or is it really? Free to a certain point where we don’t know how much that freedom is costing us .We are slowly being trapped in to something big and yet a lot of people don’t know about what is really going on in America which is quite scary. Making us Americans weak and not brave were lies of the government are slowly being discovered. I was once part of the people that yet didn’t know of what was really happening in my America.
Everything about my country was told to me like fairy tales were it is the beginning were every things turns out perfectly happy .When I was a child I remember the teacher telling us that the pledge of allegiance had to be learning as well as other American folk songs. I really didn’t mind because all those thing help me too honor my country every fourth of July when my family and I would go out and celebrate Americas independence. I felt uncomfortable with my family honoring something that was not part of my culture and knew little of, but yet not my culture that was rich with history. I started to grow up and little by little I started to see the other side of the story. Were some things are corrupt and not very pleasant. All the hate the lies the racism started to come out and started eating me and all of us alive. I faced racism first hand in a place that I would have never expected.
Just last year my sister and I were at Disneyland where some say is the happiest place on earth well that time became the worst place on earth . My sister and I were standing in line for a ride we were standing behind two white ladies. They change their subject to something that was very mean. The first lady said to the second lady you want to know what I really hate the second lady said what Mexicans she said. The second lady said shut up there is some right behind us she also added if you don’t like them you should not live in southern California there’s a whole lot of them here I felt telling them off but I was always thought to be respect full to my elders. I felt strongly discriminated by what they said only by the way I looked like. From that day I felt uncomfortable to know that were not welcome here, and of course who likes being in a place that there not welcomed. Another of my thoughts was that how discrimination was evolving it were not the African Americans this time but the Hispanics. That was just a start soon I was going to learn a lot more.
It was surprising that were I learned all the truth of the American government not in my world history class but in my science class. My world history teacher still thinks that America is in the lead like it used to be, but that’s the sad news about American schools we just don’t learn enough they just teach us the information that benefits them and yet still they sometimes twist the books. My science teacher told me a lot of the secrets the American government. In the class my science teacher would talk about how the economy was even worse than they would say in the news he said that “we were in so much debt that we are like slaves working to pay it off and that will not even help because we will not live long enough to pay it off, which is just terrifying to know that we will never be able to get out of debt which our freedom was left way back in time. He also told us that here in the U.S there is no privacy that they could read your email text messages and all your privacy and they can even put you in jail if they suspect that you’re a terrorist. When he told me this information I was shocked and didn’t want to believe him but yet all those things were true. America is at the bottom of the ocean and we are all going to down with America. Let’s just have hope that America was told to me like a fairytale were we are in the middle were everything goes wrong and comes to a happy ending.