Rush Garcia American Literature What is American Identity?

The history of our nation has led to a prospering country, open to others and filled with opportunities, but that being said, that has yet to be 1 ! true" The legacy we right

is one full of liberation, freedom, and the hatred and resentment of both" America and its citi#ens ha$e changed for the better, but not without a fight, not without great loss and little gi$en for it" %owe$er, what it&s led up to is a $ast democracy that struggled to ma'e its name of the land of liberty" Any story has two sides, and history has struggled to tell both" This not only includes our own calamities, but our interactions with other countries as well" An American, better yet this country is 'nown and identified for what we ha$e done, and what we will do in the future" %istorical figures of past times are well 'nown across the globe for their deeds" The campaign of (artin Luther )ing *r" and Abraham Lincoln, abolished the oppression of African Americans, and led to them not ha$ing been separated from other races, but li$ing amongst others as the e+uals all humans must share" George Washington, the founder of what ,umpstarted the ma'ing of our name and proudly wearing our flag to the world as our own nation, and liberated our country from -ritish occupation" These three not only ser$ed our country for the better, but ha$e lead to peace and e+uality within our borders, and opened them to those see'ing a new life" Along with them, ,ustified actions ha$e ta'en us further along the road" %owe$er the story may seem profound, along the road were pot holes and crac's needed to be filled in" The struggle of African American liberation came at such great cause" Racism ra$aged our so called land of the free, and closed the borders of our so

called home of opportunity" In the end we may ha$e fi.ed the issue, but it still stands before and today, we contradict what the $ery beginning of our amendments say, under the word of god, we had ignored what was right blindly under our own spite, our hatred for change and e+uality with others" America will continue to ha$e that legacy, and carry it on" As a country we oursel$es ha$e put our country in bad positions and made flimsy connections with others" We are not seen as dependant" Any actions of war or support are only ,ustified, as it seems and says in history, when they in$ol$e our own country" We ne$er help during World War / until our country was affected" 0$en doing so, the choices we made scared our country e$en further" 1ur leaders and our citi#ens made those choices, to ignore, and go down the wrong road of choices" Today our ties with countries, the wars we face, and the so called peace we carry today are flimsy as it is" 0$en with the campaign of (artin and Lincoln, racism continues to e.ist, as $ague as it is, it is a problem that should be rectified and gi$en foresight on" The president&s recent remar' on bombing another country, to the ma,ority, seems to be a rash decision, gi$ing our history with *apan and what we&$e done in war" 1ur country is also in great dept to others, the choices of our go$ernment and secondary superior ha$e cost us a lot of money, and we as a country struggle to pay off these debts, and our country economically suffers" Truth be told, our country has become better as a whole, after all, our name is still made and 'nown for the e+uality in citi#enship and in the country to be true" 0$ery citi#en of the country ha$e been gi$en all rights as an e+ual being" The country continues to prosper and sol$es the problems that other countries either ignore, or ,ust disagree with them" 1ur accomplishments towards growing as a country and being as we are now, and

definitely better than we once were, are all do to certain people who ha$e not ignored what the country we li$e in stands for, what was written in the declaration of independence and the amendments we ha$e written" Women&s rights, abolished sla$ery, our independence, all because at those certain times, our people and go$ernment didn&t ignore what we should continue to stand for, the land of liberty, and the home of the free"