What Does America Mean To Me Essay

If I were to use one word to define America that word would be freedom. The American continent was discovered and settled by people who were searching for both religious and political freedom and its roots are deeply set in that belief in freedom. When the pilgrims came and founded Plymouth colony they were searching for religious freedom from the church of england. The American nation is one of a kind by the fact that it was established as a result of a fight for freedom. The leaders of the American revolution sought to provide liberty for themselves and especially for future generations by standing up against the tyranny of the English government at the time. By virtue of their bravery and love for freedom a new nation was created. A new nation that would one day become one of the greatest nations on

earth.

To really understand America, one must go back to all these events in its history and learn about the base on which America was founded. Our founding fathers were very careful when drawing up the documents that would lead and define our country to insure that our freedom would be kept safe. The first amendment to the constitution, that prohibits the making of any law that would impede the free exercise of religion or freedom of speech or press, exemplifies this perfectly. As a whole, I believe most of society would agree with me that America is often associated with the word freedom. The symbol most people see when they hear the word “America” is bald eagle, flying free in the wide open sky. However, society might not agree that the source of our freedom comes from our foundation of faith in God. Society today is greatly immoral. We have taken the word “freedom” and twisted it to mean whatever we sinful, simple human beings desire. This is plainly evidenced in the recent court ruling that sanctioned

same sex marriage.
Even though many nations spurn America’s heavy handed dealings in foreign affairs, most still view America as a land of opportunity. The freedom present in America is the cause for this vast opportunity; there are few, if any, boundaries on what one may become or do with their life. American citizens are allowed to vote, speak, write, teach, work on what they love, and most importantly practice their religion freely. This amount of opportunity and possibility in the nation of America is unequaled, and the rest of the world knows it. This is evidenced by the huge amount of immigrants America has had and continues to have. The nation's immigrant population in 2013, both legal and illegal, was approximately 41.3 million, an all-time national record. Despite that fact that immigration continues to grow in America, the world's opinion of the nation is declining. America has made some bad foreign decisions like its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a result of these bad decisions we have lost some of the world trust. Nations who used to admire America for it’s value of freedom now despise and envy it for it’s great exercise of power. In the next 50 to 100 years we will likely see the continued downfall of the world's opinion of America based on the fact that we are not making any real efforts to improve that opinion. Freedom is an ideal that will always be under fire from those who wish to oppress. We have already seen some great decreases in our freedom in the last 50 years. One loss that stands out to me in particular is the passing of the Roe v. Wade law in 1973 which legalized abortion, reshaping national politics and freedom. The American declaration clearly states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life…”. This right, this freedom, was taken away from 56 million people with the passing of the Roe v. Wade law. If we are to reclaim our national definition as the land of freedom and opportunity, we must bring back good moral law.