I’m sitting in a math classroom, solving equations for X, when a booming voice comes through the overhead speaker that administrators use to communicate with teachers. “Mrs. Hall, please send Maggie Thigpen to the office.” said the voice, which I recognized to be our counselor’s. I am horrified, naturally, because I’ve never called to the office. As I walk down the winding hallways of dull white and blue, I ponder the reason for my office visit, until it dawns on me: this is for the Washington Youth Tour. I took the test for this trip months before, thinking that the lack of news meant that I did not win it, however upon my arrival to the counselor’s office I am proven wrong. I was chosen by my local EMC to go to D.C. to represent …show more content…
The rolling hills of Arlington were scenic, that is, if you could ignore the hundreds of thousands of gravestones. Here, I saw loss, great loss, in the name of this country in the form of rows of the dead. I shed tears as I watched the finely choreographed march of those participating in the changing of the guard ceremony. I saw the eternal flame. I felt a sense of national pride that carried over to the dark, climate controlled rooms of the National Archives. There, after an hour wait to get into the building, I had to fight through throngs of people all trying to see a piece of paper with faded writing that was the reason for America. I fought, again, to gaze upon the Constitution that so many in this day and age have forgotten the words of. Standing back a moment, looking at the bodies shoving past one another, I suddenly felt angry. All of these people wanted to see these documents so badly, but did they know that they condoned slavery and sexism and every opposite of equality in the book, prior to amendments that fixed some of these issues? Do they not realize that this nation may have been founded on freedom from Britain, but not freedom for all? Perhaps it is not fit to recognize these weaknesses as a citizen of the country upholding them, so I do not recognize them, I simply walk into a much less crowded …show more content…
The overwhelming feeling of the whole week spent in D.C. was reminiscent of the Fourth of July: patriotic with unwavering pride in my country. This is something that I find uniquely American, demonstrated by the fact that hundred of kids from across the U.S. were taken on an all expense paid trip to the country’s capital, because I find it hard to believe citizens of other countries are as vain as that. In history classes throughout high school, details are dropped, truths are lost, and the student is left with a sugarcoated ideal of America. We do not acknowledge our faults, our mistakes, or our disturbing realities as a country. We believe America is the greatest country in the world, without acknowledging that the Chinese have higher test scores or that there is no legislation that provides for equal pay for both sexes. The American identity is believing that your country is flawless, American culture is an ignorance that even I will admit to. I felt pride in my country during that week in mid-June and I felt it’s opposite, but how could I trust that either of those feelings are true when I still do not know the whole truth of this
Powell and Bok’ autobiography and essay have an prideful optimistic attitude towards America. Bok says “As the world stands to-day no nation offers opportunity in the degree that America does the foreign-born” It proves that the assertion is true by showing the pride he has toward America by stating that no other nation offers what the US does. Powell says “And America that is still the beacon of light to the darkest corner of the world” The prideful tone Powell displays is shown in this quote by saying that America is the light in the dark corner. Powell and Bok both use writing to paint the prideful
Thousands of men died in November 1863. Within in a couple of days bodies laid scattered across the battle fields while tens of thousands men sat in a hospital. All of these men participated in one thing, the Civil War. Fighting for the rights of the people and what our constitution stood for. Families and friends had to pick a side, South or the North. Each had their reasoning for why they stood to fight, but surprisingly their reasoning was similar. Each state was proud they live in a country that had broken away from British. They marveled at the idea that all men are created and equal and have certain rights. Americans were proud. Proud to the point that they never stopped pay attention to all that they did. Proud because they put laws on humans and threw them into bondage. In 1861 people started to take sides. In some ways it was unconstitutional, but in others they were fighting for the people. The Civil War had begun. The fate of our country was in the hands of the people. On opposite sides of the war, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee wrote The Gettysburg Address and Letter to His Son there were three astonishingly similarities and differences in the two works: the people are one, acts were unconstitutional and the nation is on shaky ground.
“Do I have to go? I mean, it’s not required for me to finish high school or anything. It’s just something you want me to do,” I pleaded with my parents. “Yes you have to go and there’s no way you’re going to get out of it either. It’ll be a good experience for you, and you might even make some new friends,” my father replied. Tomorrow I was going to HOBY, which stands for Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar. It is specifically for sophomores in high school and I was chosen to be one of the candidates to represent my school for the year twenty fifteen. There are many HOBYs around the United States, but I was going to HOBY Ohio West located at the Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. The seminar started on June fourth and concluded on the seventh. This was a four day event and I wouldn’t see my family for two of the days. I had just turned sixteen in April and I had never stayed more than an hour away from my family for a night or two. It was very nerve-wracking for me, but I had to go no matter what. Little did I know that this experience would make me into the more confident young woman I am today.
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride. In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus, a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view him as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized.
“To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.” (Susan B. Anthony)
I soon found myself at the open door of Mrs. Walker’s office. I could hardly contain my excitement as I situated myself in the cushioned black chair in front of her. She said to me delicately with compassionate eyes, “I know how bad you want to go, but only one student from our school was selected to attend. It was not you.” She encouraged me to pursue other opportunities over the summer, but her words went in one ear and out the other. I left her office with a pout on my face, feeling somber and
On the first day after the Twin Towers fell, when the skies were silent and the country cried, a sense of patriotism was greatly increased and appreciated. Many people came from several different countries, with many different skills, but everyone who came all had one
Every US citizen all have something in common; freedom. Most Americans go throughout their whole personal life, whether it be work, school, or other activities, never questioning, ”How do I have the opportunity to be able to do these things?” We instead ask and worry about other things, and don’t take time to acknowledge how we are able to have agency in our decisions of everyday life. The First Amendment allows US citizens to have privileges that don’t exist in some countries, like freedom of speech, religion, and the right to petition. Likewise, this amendment is unique to the United States of America, and no other country in the world has as many freedoms as the US. Because of these exclusive rights, we must protect them from being taken away. This is why the US has a military; to protect the freedoms exclusive to America. This is why we have Veterans’ Day; to celebrate the veterans of war who fought and put their lives down to keep their land free. This essay will go over why we should celebrate our country’s warriors, and it will talk about what veterans give up to protect their country, how their personal lives change, and how they affect our community/country.
The term “America” does not have one but many definitions that various people have come up with through out the centuries. Some believe America is everything they could hope for and some have believed that it is not what it seems. Frederick Douglas’ What to the Slave is the Fourth of July and Michael Rogin’s text Political Repression in the United States are two pieces of historic evidence that show what each individual imagined America as. Although both pieces have similarities, they have differences as well not only in their ideas but their writing style and content as well.
Stephanie Coontz’s, David Brook’s, and Margaret Atwood all discuss American cultural myths in their respective essays “The Way We Wish We Were,” “One Nation, Slightly Divisible,” and “A Letter to America.” All three authors elaborate on specific cultural myths, whether it is about an ideal family, an ideal lifestyle, or an ideal country as a whole. As a result of analyzing the three texts, it is clear that the authors critique Americas image in their own was. As well as elaborate on why the realistic view of the United States is being squelched by major cultural myths.
Furgurson explains he has more experience in dealing with this problem. For instance “I qualify four times over for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, vigorous defenders of their heritage and its symbols. Because I’d written Civil War history.” He explains that he has more experience in dealing with this situation than others because he has written Civil War History. He gives an example of how once he was invited 20 years ago to speak to the SCV camp in Alexandria. In his talk, he recalled his great-grandfather who died of smallpox in the Yankee prison at Fort Delaware, and the people at the SCV camp were impressed. Then he told them that the Confederate battle flag was a provocation and that it should be retired to the museum. Furgurson than bringing other people's opinions such New York Times editorialist Brent Staples. Who strongly supports removing statues of villains like Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a postwar organizer of the Klan. There Furgurson comes to conclusion, he responds to staples, “But neither the professor nor do I want to start bulldozing without serious reflections on how to honor history. For me, that should mean enshrining other heroes, at least as conspicuously as the ones who now stir such passions.” Furguson thinks instead of destroying statues. We should replace them with heroes we admire today. For instance, the statues standing today were once
The exploration of what patriotism is and what represents patriotism is an important one more people should embark upon. If Americans are to examine patriotisms true meaning, we will be able to abolish this faux patriotism, which is represented by intimidation, censorship, and majority rules attitudes or actions. This can be replaced by feelings and actions of caring, compassion, acceptance, rationality, and nonviolence, or in other words, patriotism.
Remembrance and reverence to those who fought in one of the bloodiest wars in United States’ history are offered through Confederate monuments and namesakes. The removal of Confederate monuments and names of schools brings in a whitewashing of the American past. Citizens learn from the past, and if it is erased the lessons to be learned are lost along with it. Americans should constantly be
The American Civil war is considered to be one of the most defining moments in American history. It is the war that shaped the social, political and economic structure with a broader prospect of unifying the states and hence leading to this ideal nation of unified states as it is today. In the book “Confederates in the Attic”, the author Tony Horwitz gives an account of his year long exploration through the places where the U.S. Civil War was fought. He took his childhood interest in the Civil War to a new level by traveling around the South in search of Civil War relics, battle fields, and most importantly stories. The title “Confederates in the Attic”: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War carries two meanings in Tony Horwitz’s thoughtful and entertaining exploration of the role of the American Civil War in the modern world of the South. The first meaning alludes to Horwitz’s personal interest in the war. As the grandson of a Russian Jew, Horwitz was raised in the North but early in his childhood developed a fascination with the South’s myth and history. He tells readers that as a child he wrote about the war and even constructed a mural of significant battles in the attic of his own home. The second meaning refers to regional memory, the importance or lack thereof yet attached to this momentous national event. As Horwitz visits the sites throughout the South, he encounters unreconstructed rebels who still hold to outdated beliefs. He also meets groups of “re-enactors,” devotees who attempt to relive the experience of the soldier’s life and death. One of his most disheartening and yet unsurprising realizations is that attitudes towards the war divide along racial lines. Too many whites wrap the memory in nostalgia, refusing...
...cate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work, which they who fought here have thus far so nobly, advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”