Marilyn Vos Savant: What Is The Essence Of America?

Writer Marilyn Vos Savant once stated, “What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom ‘to’ and freedom ‘from’.” When you are an American, freedom is just one of the multitudinous privileges that come with the package. Benefits such as rights, the pursuit of happiness, and diversity are some additional perquisites. However, everything has flaws and America has a few.

Primarily, one of the more obvious things about being an American is having freedom. You are permitted to do as you please as long as you don’t interfere in the way of others’ safety and freedom. For instance, I can express myself in countless ways and it wouldn’t be against the law. I could wear what I desire and say what I want to say. In

countries like Russia, it is strictly prohibited to do such “incautious acts.” Americans also have rights along with freedom. They have a right to certain things like religion, beliefs, or none at all. Many people don’t have any rights so we must treat this as a privilege as they can be taken away.
Additionally, we as Americans are allowed to follow our dreams. The government does not prevent us from being content. Most people receive an education, which is another advantage, to pursue their aspirations. In the future, the young generation will grow up to be successful women and men and continue the great country of America. Everybody has a choice to be successful or unsuccessful but they will still have the right to get back up.
Furthermore, Americans are diverse. America began as a melting pot, where immigrants poured in to start a new life. However, times have changed and it is now a salad bowl, mixed with all different kinds of people from all over the world. While few say this is what causes intersectionality, I say that it is what makes this country unique. How many other countries have people from all over the world coming in? Americans are meant to be distinctive and embrace it and each other's’ differences. We must all understand and appreciate what we have and what our ancestors did for us in order for us to do the same for the next generation.
However, America isn’t as picture perfect as it may seem sometimes.

Racism, sexism, and terrorism are all extremely unfortunate but recurrent things. Most likely, people have seen the recent attacks in New York and New Jersey. As loyal and charitable Americans, it is our sworn duty and honor to help out everybody in this time and work together for the sake of others, even if we are not particularly fond of them. Additionally, problems such as sexism and racism are apparent as well. While it is acceptable to have an opinion on something or someone, it is not justifiable to use that as a reason to discriminate against them, as they have a right to happiness and equality as much as you do. So whether you are African or German, woman or man, we are all equal and should be treated accordingly.

Overall, to be an American is to be united. We all work hard to ensure our future and support each other so we can be stronger. The founding fathers created this indestructible and predominate nation so that we all may be free, live jubilantly, and last but not least, stick together and we can all be joint under the classic red, white, and blue flag. After all, The United States of America was named that for a

reason.