In today’s society many people focus on how to simply better themselves, regardless of how their actions affect others, let alone affect the entire country. We have the mindset of “What can my country do for me?” when in reality we need to be asking “What can I do to better my country?”. As Americans we have a shared responsibility to protect our country and help it thrive. My responsibility to America is to be a contributing member of society; a person that considers the well-being of the whole, rather than solely my own well-being. Our beautiful country requires a tremendous amount of work from the citizens, after all we are a democracy. As a citizen one of my rights and responsibilities is to vote once I become of age. The United States of America runs like a machine and the voters act as the oil- without our input parts become stagnant, rusty, and break. As a citizen it is my responsibility to give feedback to politicians and voice my opinions, because …show more content…
For our country to succeed everyone must carry their own weight, not only will this make the individual prosperous, but will help the entire country thrive. My responsibility is to find where I fit into this economy; what job I can do in order to contribute something valuable to this nation. Every single job in the United States serves a purpose, regardless of how small or large it may be perceived. As an American citizen I must do my part to fill those jobs, or even create new ones. Our economy is extremely complex, but one thing is certain: the average American has the power to tremendously influence the economy. When people over spend their income our country can fall into the depths of a depression, as it did at the end of 1929 after almost a decade of frivolous spending and relying on credit for purchases. As a country we learned from that, and it has become our responsibility to balance consumerism and
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
The Chartist movement (a working class political movement) in 1840 believed “People had no one else but themselves to blame for the actions of their politicians” (Nash). What Mr. Nash and the chartist movement believe couldn’t be more on the spot. This country has gotten to the point where people find it hard to walk down their street to the elementary school where the voting polls are, and take a few minutes to cast a vote. A vote that millions of people around the world wish they were able to have them selves. With all the political suffrage that goes on through the world and people forced to love a leader, these no-shows should be thankful to live in a democracy. A place where elections aren’t rigged and the people are truly heard. This is why the topic of voting turnout needs to be raised. Also it’s very annoying to hear people complaining about our President when they did not even vote. It’s a very bad habit to not vote, and it needs to change with the younger citizens of this country. Helping younger people see the importance of voting needs to start with technological and educational ideas while expanding all the way to social event ideas. Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase.
While being an American offers numerous benefits, it also brings with it certain imperative responsibilities. It is your duty to demonstrate your commitment to your country
Cave, Damien. "What Does It Mean to Be American?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 2014. Web. 04 Sept. 2016.
...eople not voting! Americans are becoming less educated on the issues that they are facing as well as the candidates running at the time of office. However, according Longley (2011) ”Still, 93 percent of infrequent voters agreed that voting is an important part of being a good citizen and 81 percent of nonvoters agreed it is an important way to voice their opinions on issues that affect their families and communities” (pg. 1).
The ideal of American citizenship was not only if you were legal in America, but the ideal that you have the values and rights of a citizen. Unregulated capitalism and the ultimate change in government regulations in big business led to a change in the ideal of citizenship. With the start of big business in America the theory of unregulated capitalism was tested for the first time. In this paper I will discuss the ideal of what a citizen was before the great depression with unregulated capitalism, and the changing from no regulations to some, and the after effect this had.
Many people have asked the question, and many others have been asked, ‘What is the greatest country in the world?’ Or, if you live in America, ‘Why is America the greatest country in the world?’ Many people answer this by saying things such as freedom, our education, diversity, etc., while others may say the people who live here, namely, Americans. Yet few are able to sufficiently answer the next question, ‘What makes a person an American?’ Many will say that living here makes you an American. Yet they seem to forget about the thousands, if not millions, of illegal immigrants that are living in our country. Are they Americans just because they are living in our country? Our federal government does not agree, which is why we have several laws concerning the deportation of illegal immigrants. Others, who see past the simple idea of living here as a means of being an American, may say that your characteristics help to define you as an American. Yet the most agreeable answer would be a combination of the two. An American would be someone who lives in America legally, and also holds within themselves various characteristics, which among these include an over-abundance of confidence,
Being an American is more than just living in America, or being born in this country. Many people talk about being American’s and they aren't even in this country. Being an American is a way of life that people adapt into by seeing how we act. People all over the world eat the same things that we eat, so that can't really be a way of being an American. To me, being an American is embracing our ways of life, not fighting for the other guys, and loving our anthem and the flag.
What does it mean to be an American? To me, what it means to be American is to Pledge Allegiance to your country, to proudly boast that you live in a country that has a justification for existence, to be given opportunity. Although there are many definitions of what it means to be an American, does being an American really just mean being successful in society? The point of this essay is to describe the different meanings and my feelings of what it is to be “American”.
One of the most important responsibilities of our nation is to protect and serve its citizens. As the new millennium begins, our nation must overcome many challenges that affect this responsibility. Three of the most important are terrorism, illiteracy, and the lack of moral values.
Everyone has a responsibility as a citizen of America to do his duty to help our nation get better every day. By volunteering for special interest groups, not buying products that harm the world, and by being a little bit nicer to people the world be a little bit nicer.
Ever since I came to the United States, I have been influenced by the culture in many ways. I come from an island where there is no freedom of speech and where people do not follow their dream because they have few possibilities to achieve them. Also, people speak a whole different language. Arriving in the United States was scary; this country was different than anything I had ever seen before. I had to make new friends, I had to become used to speaking English, and It was hard to get used to the different atmosphere overall. Making new friends was hard at first, there were so many different people from different cultures and countries that I had no idea who to even talk to, but I was blessed to find my first friend in
When I think of America I think of freedom and citizenship. The right to vote or the right of free speech are aspects that, as citizens, we posses. Being born in America automatically gives you these rights and many more, and most importantly, you become a citizen. Now, with citizenship comes responsibility such as obeying the law and paying taxes. So if you follow these simple rules does this make you an effective citizen? This question, in my opinion, is almost impossible to answer for a number of reasons, which will be addressed in the following paper. It was extremely hard to come up with a clear cut answer as to what an effective citizen entails. I grappled with this term through many drafts and in the end came up with many conclusions about effective citizenship. Let me state my main point of this paper, and that is, effective citizenship entails so many things and the true meaning of a “good citizen” differs from person to person and from time to time. In this paper I will share with you how the idea of effective citizenship varies according to person and time and my personal beliefs on what is effective citizenship.
America is so-called “the land of opportunity”, which makes the country a whole. Being a whole displays a positive
All that can really be seen is what appears before ourselves. What we see on billboards, television, or radio show constantly the views of a new runner for politics whom proclaims what he or she wishes to accomplish. Listening to it, one can create a thought of why did they choose that topic for an argument? Today not all people vote so the ones who do are the people these “runners” focus on. Why would they fight to create increased pay to schools if all the voters are the elderly? Why not focus upon retirement benefits or healthcare? As citizens we have complaints on how the government manages our money and yet we do not do anything about it. Voting gives a chance. If certain groups grew in votes different ideas would be made for these “runners”. Say the young adults started to vote a lot more. We could have schooling benefits, less tuition fees, higher education levels, and possibly a large increase in jobs. One United Kingdom publisher explains, “If you vote, the campaigners urge, the politicians will have to listen to you and things will change.”(Kirkup, The Telegraph). Also youth have the longest time, and live what the country becomes. To conclude, voting doesn’t take long and doesn’t require almost any effort. All it requires just an open mind and yet people just do not realize this opportunity. Right now we could be living in the richest most opportunistic country if everyone could understand what can become of our views. Life could be looked forward not