The
Great Experiment
On
a cold February day in Springfield, Illinois, in the heartland of the
United States, a forty-six year old African American man stepped up
to the podium and announced his candidacy for the office of the
President of the United States. For this man to have such a unique
opportunity, two hundred years before his birth, a group of men, born
into the right time, had the courage to give birth to the first
democratic nation. On July 4, 1776, fifty-six colonists from all
across the British colonies in North America assembled in
Philadelphia and signed the Declaration of Independence and by doing
so changed the course of history. The day in which the colonist shed
their British shackles and ascended into the light where they stood
tall and declared to the world; “We the People of the United
States, in Order to form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure
domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and
our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America,” (Jefferson, Preamble) the world was
shaken by such magnitude that it was evident to all that a new era
had begun. Upon the creation of the United States and her citizens,
this country has always and forever shall be one of diversity,
equality, and freedom for the sacrifice of any of these would
undermine the hopes, dreams, and purpose of the Founding Fathers.
In
the early 17th
century after the New World was being settled, the Atlantic Coast was
colonized and had become a fruitful source of resources and wealth
for the British Empire. No enlightened man could have fathomed that
these thirteen colonies would one day rise to become the most
powerful and wealthy country in the history of the world. For those
thirteen original colonies to evolve from a ragged band of farmers
into industry leading technicians and businessmen a great deal of
immigrants left their homes to come to the United States to try and
fulfill the ideals that in America life could be better. Often they
themselves did not succeed in achieving the “American Dream” but
their future generations, seeded by the struggles of their parents,
helped to shape the fundamental structure of the United States. Since
the colonial days, America has always been a land of diversity. From
the Europeans who first claimed the coasts and encountered the Native
Americans, to the Africans who were stolen from their lands and
transported across the sea, and to the Asians who migrated during the
Expansion West, all have come together to form a nation unlike any
other. A nation that has been wrought with civil violence,
segregation, civil war. A nation that has also bounded, burying the
rivalries of their fathers, and matured as a whole to benefit from
the differences and similarities of one another. The United States
has been the only country ever to attempt to be a nation of
immigrants; to be a nation larger than what the color of one's skin
is or the religion they practice, and as is written in the supreme
law of the land, “We the People of the United States, in Order to
form a more perfect Union”.
Since
the Enlightenment of Europe, great minds have fiddled with the notion
of equality. Even from the ancient ruin cities of Rome and Athens
equality of men was a problem that plagued some of the world's most
impressive philosophers. This idea was transcribed by Thomas
Jefferson as he wrote the Constitution, “The foundation on which
our constitution is built is the natural equality of men.” The
citizens of the United States are granted the right to be equal to
all and that is essential in the American philosophy. Throughout the
nation's turbulent past this right has been infringed upon and
illegally restricted to particular ethnic and religious affiliations,
and by the grace of the descending generations such flaws were
removed from society so that the belief that the United States is
equal and united may survive. The United States cannot hold certain
ideals true and yet not practice them and it has been proven in our
history that the enlightened people will not stand by and watch as
their fellow countrymen are abused and discriminated against. Equality is an
essential part of the American way of life and the American people,
and shall continue to be upheld by the law that governs all
Americans.
Freedom,
as it is often said, is not free. Since the end of the Revolutionary
War, 225 years ago, to the current struggle against terrorism the
American people have always and fiercely believed that freedom is
something worth dying for. Today, it is a luxury shared by scores of
countries and is often taken for granted. The United States was the
first modern country to offer and protect this right; however, the
various ethnic groups have not always been allowed to share this
right despite the word of the Constitution. For the first eighty
years of existence, the southern United States practiced and profited
from slave labor, and until the early and mid 20th
century a large portion of Americans—women and African
Americans—were denied the rights that were the basic theories of
American freedom. “Here is my advice as we begin the century that
will lead to 2081. First, guard the freedom of ideals at all costs.
Be alert that dictators have always played the natural human tendency
to blame others and oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a
guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of the
people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered expression,”
(O'Neill, 2081: A Hopeful View of the
Human Future). Freedom has been a
double edged sword in the case of the United States. In our
constitution, we grant all Americans access to the freedoms protected
by the Bill of Rights, though, in the past as now, strict ethnic,
religious, and sexual orientation groups have been the target by
conservative majorities to ban or restrict their freedoms. These
restrictions have always been found by the descendants of the
majority to be unconstitutional and repelled so that all Americans
may be united under the banner of freedom.
The
United States of America is the privileged home of hundreds of
millions of people who are all, in some shape or form, the embodiment
of what it is to be an American. This great experiment of society has
produced the finest the world has to offer. Everyone who carries the
mantel of their ancestors to live on as Americans has qualities that
are unbeknown to them but shine brightly among those who watch from a
far. An American is not merely being born in this land or migrating
here, it is something more; an American is someone who strives to be
better than who their parents were, someone who has a strong desire
to help their fellow man, and someone who believes that the
challenges we face, we face together. An American is strengthened by
the differences that combine to weave a net of diversity, holds all
men and women with the same esteem that they are by birth equal, and
that cherishes every freedom that is defended by fallen constituents.
“It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get where we are
today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of
making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit
better than the one we inhabit today,” (Barack Obama). This
Nation's strides forward greatly outweigh the demons of our past, and
only through continued acceptance of one another can the United
States hope to survive.
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