Obama Presidency

“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.  On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.  We remain a young nation.  But in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.  The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. “

In this passage Obama was informing the people that it was because of their want for change he was elected the president. The people voted for Obama regardless to his race even with the fear of the unknown. He informs the people that it’s time for new politics to go with the younger generation, who’d soon be in entering the political arena.  Obama is reminding the citizens of the United States that we all should have the same rights and we all are equal, free.

I chose this passage because it represents to me how people can come together when we believe in something. Everyone wanted change and Obama seen that and made it apart of his campaign, ensuring the people that he would fix the country. I believe Obama recognized that there are many problems in the country that needs to be addressed but the outpouring of white and black people at the voting polls shown that the country can unite. He encourages the people who put him in office to realize that we are all born into this world with god given rights and everyone should have them. Regardless, to the color of your skin we are all entitled to happiness and freedom.

Equal Rights

“The political rights of citizenship, unlike the civil rights, were full of potential danger to the capitalist system, although those who were cautiously extending them down to the social scale probably did not realize how great the danger was. They could hardly be expected to foresee what vast changes could be brought about by the peaceful use of political power, without a violent and bloody revolution.”

The passage above states that political rights and civil rights were totally different and giving every citizen of the United States political rights would be a danger to the capitalist system. It’s believed that if all citizens were given the right to vote and equal social protections under the law the system of would fail. That would mean there would be no private ownership, production, distribution and exchange of wealth amongst individuals or corporations. Everyone would have the same right as each other. Although, political participation would bring changes they preferred to have violent wars to keep everyone at a certain economic and social level.  

I chose this quote because I feel that is was important for political participation which would also establish social rights. As citizens of the United States all people should be entitled to the same rights. Civil rights could not be effective without some type of support from the political spectrum. The capitalist system isn’t a fair system. I think it just holds down the people who are aren’t wealthy, while it continues to build up the economic status of those who are already wealthy. Political and social rights are entitled to everyone not just a certain group of individuals.   

Anti-Slavery Movement

“One anti-slavery movement nearly died out fifty years ago, and I am not prepared to deny the possibility of a like fate for this one. The elements of discord and deterioration are already in it, and working their legitimate results. And yet I am not gloomy. Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up from time to time to carry it forward. Looked at apart from the bones and sinews, and body, it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of justice, liberty and love. The moral life of human society—it cannot die, while conscience, honor and humanity remain. If but one be filled with it, the cause lives.…If there be but one such man in the land, no matter what becomes of abolition societies and parties, there will be an anti-slavery cause, and an antislavery movement.…"

In this passage Fredrick Douglas is stating that the Anti-Slavery organizations in the movement aren’t as eager and ready to fight to end slavery as they once were. He feels like the organizations aren’t on the same mission and have become less concerned with the federal government granting liberty for all. These abolitionist have moved to the notion that slave masters would be the person in charge of freeing the slaves ultimately.  Douglas does believe that even if these Anti-Slavery movements deteriorate, there will still be people in the country who will push for the end of slavery through the federal government.

                I believe Fredrick Douglas wasn’t giving up on Anti-Slavery movements and organizations but he was giving up on what they stood for at the time and there efficiency. They were no longer concerned about making it a law that all people whether in the Freed North or South deserved liberty. Although, they all had the same mission to end slavery, they all didn’t go about it the same way. But Douglas had hope that future generations would come forth and push for the end of slavery.

Another Stab at the Constitution

                 

“ I am not naïve enough to believe that doing away with the Second Amendment would do away with gun violence, but I know firsthand the impact of guns and gun shots on children. This nation was constructed and reconstructed in the aftermath of violent and bloody conflicts. Still, the Framers believed that not only the Constitution, but also the peaceful way the document was created, would penetrate the Americans' minds and change they engaged. The Constitution would be the only weapon needed unless there was an external enemy.”- Melynda Price 

             The quote above from a New York Times article by Melynda Price is speaking on the right to bear arms, the second amendment in the Constitution. Price states that she doesn’t support the second amendment giving citizens the right to bear arms. She makes it clear that she is aware that removing the second amendment will not stop gun violence. She believes the constitution was a document created to change how Americans engage with each other. Price thinks that if we were to do away with or ratify the second amendment that the document would be all Americans need as a weapon regarding domestic issues in the country. 

      I chose this quote from the article because I do think there should be changes to the second amendment regarding the right to bear arms. With recent school shootings and gun violence in communities, revising the second amendment could put an end to some of these senseless shootings in America. The government needs to enforce thorough policies and procedures when trying to obtain legal rights to carry and posses a fire arm. I do not think that removing the second amendment will not stop gun violence but it could put a stop to many of the mass shootings, gun violence and the illegal possession of fire arms. 

       

Trans-National America By: Randolph Bourne

“We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born, and if distinctions are to be made between us they should rightly be on some other ground than indigenousness. The early colonists came over with motives no less colonial than the later. They did not come to be assimilated in an American melting-pot. They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian. They had not the smallest intention of "giving themselves without reservation" to the new country. They came to get freedom to live as they wanted. They came to escape from the stifling air and chaos of the old world; they came to make their fortune in a new land. They invented no new social framework. Rather they brought over bodily the old ways to which they had been accustomed. Tightly concentrated on a hostile frontier, they were conservative beyond belief. Their pioneer daring was reserved for the objective conquest of material resources. In their folkways, in their social and political institutions, they were, like every colonial people, slavishly imitative of the mother-country. So that, in spite of the "Revolution," our whole legal and political system remained more English than the English, petrified and unchanging, while in England law developed to meet the needs of the changing times."

         My understanding of the passage above is that the early colonial people came to a country in which, wasn’t of their original place of birth, wanting others to assimilate to their “English ways” not really trying to understand the culture of those already occupying land in America. They didn’t come to America wanting to learn the culture of others, they came wanting to take over a land and have others follow and live by their traditions and laws. The colonial people migrated to this new land with the mindset that every other culture would adopt their way of how to live in America.

           

            I chose this passage because it shows that from the start this country has always been a “melting pot” and land filled with diversity. Randolph Bourne starts the passage saying, “We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born, and if distinctions are to be made between us they should rightly be on some other ground than indigenousness” (pg. 2).  We can make notice of differences amongst people but we shouldn’t say what culture is the truest when America was never the early colonialist natural place of birth. The first people in America were the Native Americans. The natives had their own way of living, traditions, laws and beliefs. The colonialists came to a land which was foreign to them, they had no history here wanting to change it to what they believed was right. They wanted freedom to do as they liked and make laws and have everyone follow their culture. The colonists took over America creating a foreign culture to other occupants of the land and even today hundreds of years later, their values and ideas still govern the land making the “melting pot” seem as a failure of democracy. When my belief is that the democracy failed when the early colonist came to the new land with no regards to adopt or assimilate to the way the land was upon their arrival.  Democracy is liberty and freedom. Yet it’s frowned upon to migrate to America keeping your traditions and values from the land of your families origin and it’s expected that you become fully apart of another society. We shouldn’t say that everyone that comes to America should throw away their beliefs when the country is based on another countries values and culture.

            I believe this passage is important because it shows us that this country started as a “melting pot” and there isn’t really an “American way”. There isn’t really an American tradition because the colonist brought over their traditions and laws from the English. So, how could most people say that immigrants who enter this country should forget about their culture and live by what society thinks is “American” when the creators of the “American culture” were not even descendants from the land? The “melting pot” theory is an accurate representation that democracy is what defines America and not assimilation to a culture. That’s why America is so diverse.