"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more 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".
These words begin one of the most influential documents in world. Can anyone take a guess? Yes I know what your thinking... "dah we learned this in eighth grade". But to those who don't remember this very important document, well here you go: IT'S THE CONSTITUTION! Ahhhhh, "eureka!" anyone?
Now here's a little history lesson if any of you forget. The U.S. Constitution established America's national government and fundamental laws, while also guaranteeing certain basic rights for its citizens. On September 17, 1787, it was signed by the delegates in Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, presided over by, the future first president,George Washington. The Bill of Rights--10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections such as freedom of speech and religion-- also became part of the Constitution in 1791.
This is what I want to talk about: The Bill of Rights. America is my home. I was born here, raised here and will probably always live here. The same is for most of the 311 million other Americans that were born into this country as well (still growing by the way).We are fortunate enough to have been born into this country, meaning that we were all born with these natural rights. But sometimes we take those rights for granted.
When I come to school, my fellow classmates and I are dragging our feet across the dirt ridden floor with our ipods blasting and eyes half closed.At 7:05 the final bell rings and we all are required to stand up (which takes a lot for some), put our right hand over our heart and say the pledge. Now looking around I see all of them do two of the three steps. Some people just stand, bend their legs, stretch and yawn. THIS ISN'T YOGA PEOPLE! Of course theirs me who stops half way in between the pledge because no one else is-- which is just as bad! Why do we do this? I have no idea. We are American and our founding fathers and all the men who fought for our independence are probably turning in their graves. Look at our country. Some people don't even like America and yet their living here. So yeah...sure we celebrate July 4th and such and such, but is that really the only day where we dress up in our nations colors and really respect our nation? Well from my hypothesis, I would say.... YEP!
How can we call ourselves American and claim those rights when we can't even take the time to say the pledge?
I used to be one of those people who were guilty of not really loving our country- this was when I was in high school- because I felt that we had no "identity." I wanted to be part of a nation that had a strong single culture with traditions that were deeply rooted in the way of life. This turned around once I realized that we have so MANY cultures to celebrate here and that we can all celebrate them together. We are free to believe how we want, we are exposed to all the ways of life that can be found in the world (except perhaps the African and Amazonian tribal ways) and have freedom to write, speak and believe as we see correct, as long as we are not harming another.
ReplyDeletePretty good life.