Sarah Vowell makes a drastic comperison of 17th century England to modern day America, saying that she wonders if "its time to abandon her country because it may be deystroying itself."
Is this country deystroying itself? I dont believe so. Could it? Absolutely. Due to our president and many of America's leaders, this country is undergoing a lot of changes. Drastic ones. And there are more to come.
One of the biggest ones is Obama's Free Health Care Plan. The country is in an upstart over this huge change. Town hall meetings all over the nation are being broadcast to show just how active people have become and thats only one example of American disputes coming up, being for or against this Health Care Plan.
Will having this Health Care Plan destroy the country? I cant answer that. But what I do know is that Americans are coming out of their homes to discuss a change that has never before taken place in America, and thats significant. I firmly believe in order for this country to be destoryed our spirit would have to be destroyed and spirit is something that is hard to kill. Whether or not your for the Health Care Plan is not my point but rather an example, my point is that this one example stirs enough emotion and passion in people (which it should) that they are talking about it, thinking about it and arguing over it. " We, the people," are not going to stand by and just let the government (aka people we put in charge) change our country without being heard ourselves.
Sarah Vowell may think that this country is falling apart or will fall apart, but I think the contrary. As long as this country can hold onto what it was founded on, we will continue to thrive. Does the Free Health Care Plan support this countries fundamentals? Well thats the million dollar question isnt it. Because if it cant, will it be a big enough change to scar or bring down The United States? I really dont know. But I do care, as we all should. I dont think this country needs to be left because theres no hope of saving it, I think it needs to be supported in a time when people are pulled in such severly different directions because of how they want they're country run.
We dont need to abandon the country because theres no hope of uniting the people now that there are so many changes that are threatening to be made. We just need to remind ourselves that there is more to this country than just being able to push for what you want, theres also living in harmony with those who want differently than you do.
Thats awfully hard thing to do though. But then again leaving your place of birth for unknown land in the shadow of a murderous king all because of what you believe is a hard thing to do as well...What if that challenge had never been taken?...
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America is undoubtedly going through some tough times, but as a nation we are not yet destroying ourselves. The damage that we have done to our nation is far from irreversible, but if we are to correct the damage, we are going to need the help and cooperation of every American. If we are to get America back on track, then we must end the petty squabbling and namecalling that we see going on today, and we must put our heads together-really together, not against one another-and we must work out and determine what is truly best for America. To "abandon ship" now is to abandon America in its time of need; indeed, to abandon ship now would be to condemn America to shipwreck.
ReplyDeleteChange is completely normal, if it wasn't we would still be using washboards and horses to get to burlington. They say you sometimes have to take 3 step back before you take 5 steps forward, and as long as America has Obama doing this, I think we will come out of this. If I were to change one thing about America it would be us trying to shoot bullets in wars across the country from us, its just stupid
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what Obama does or doesn't do in office, the fate of America rests not so much on his shoulders as it does on the collective shoulders of its citizens. In essence, democracy is the fundamental belief that more than 50% of the people are correct more than 50% of the time (although the electoral college does through a wrench in the works). Regardless of whether or not Obama's health care reform saves an irrefutabely fucked up system, or simply fucks it up even more doesn't change the fact that America's only hope of survival, and the only hope of survival it's ever had, is the unanimous support of her people. For us to dig ourselves out of this pit of decades of corruption and lies, it will have to stem from the people. It will mean compromise, it will mean sacrifice, and it will mean change. But if we look to the past, I think we'll find that that's the only way anything's ever gotten done. As you said, "What if the challenge had never been taken?" It would be a shame if 50 years from now, we as Americans had to look back on our lives, wondering what would've happened if we had "taken the challenge".
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