by LilhouseInk

Created on: October 29, 2008

We The People?

Whenever I ponder the makeup of this grand country, I can only feel anger and frustration at the point we have arrived at. So many things have happened throughout the years that have helped to shape it into the giant that it now is, perched upon the foundation which we the people make up. The frustration part kicks in when you try to make sense of how it all came together and where the turns have taken us.

I know there are those who feel that we stole this country from the original Americans, but I don't see it that way. After all, since the beginning of time life has always been about one group of people conquering or overtaking another one. Or as my Father used to say "the big fish eat the little fish". We cannot fault our forefathers for continuing to push westward.

My analogy of the creation of this great country is very simple. We have been like one giant tidal wave. Starting with the landing at Plymouth Rock to the Thirteen Original Colonies and the purchase of the island of Manhatten.
Moving west to the "Louisiana Purchase", and the "Spanish American War". Throw in the "Civil War", and the list goes on.. We grew slowly and became a great and powerful nation, fearing no one. We were very proud, and, and. our leaders were strong. Everybody worked hard, raised their families, and life went on.
Immigrants entered our country on a regular basis from Europe,
Puerto Rico, and Mexico, to name a few. The one common thread was that they all had the same goal. They all wanted to become part of the American dream. They all wanted to be Americans. It's common to see in some old pictures new immigrants waving little American flags.

So what happened, you might ask? What is the difference between those new Americans and the ones from today? It's simple. It seems that along the way, we started to take our freedom for granted.
We began to create divisions amongst us in an effort to appease all the different interests. The progress made by great leaders such as Martin Luther King was taken in different directions. It started out as the right thing; after all, everyone deserves civil rights as we are all Americans. Unfortunately, within time the push for these rights was taken to an extreme by black power militants and others who were never able to put the ugliness of the slavery days behind them. There were many things happening that Dr. King would never have approved of. I believe his dream was to bring us all to equality, not to create hatred, or live for revenge.

It

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