America, the Beautiful? Essay

Submitted By dymondambition
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America, Is it Really “the Beautiful”? There is a popular song known throughout the “US of A”, entitled America the Beautiful. Here is one stanza from this song: “O beautiful for glory-tale/ Of liberating strife/ When once and twice,/For man's avail/ Men lavished precious life!/ America! America!/ God shed his grace on thee/ Till selfish gain no longer stain/ The banner of the free!” This song tells of what America is like, or should I say be like. Here is where the problem stands, in title and throughout each line of this song. It speaks of a beautiful landmass covered with mountains, fields of grain; it speaks of brotherhood, all being united, and selfishness – no longer a problem… But is this, what America really is? And I do not mean for you or for me; but for all people, all ethnicities, social and economic groups. It would be great if I could and “yes” to this question, but would I be telling the truth? This is certainly not how it was meant to be, however sadly the answer to that question is, no and many of the lines in that songs seems to me a collection of puns or play on words. America is divided into many groups, to include: race, residence, social status, employment status, and economical/financial status. The world views the most important of the many to be economical status, whether you are considered of the low class, middle class, or high class percentage of society. Many people often look upon each with ones’ own judgment already in mind. No matter what may happen to cause their opinion to sway, the mere thought is blocked by personal beliefs or truths. But yet if we were to just try on each other’s shoes, just to see how they fit, feel, and look on our feet; we would all fall the first step. For until you have been in that exact same spot no one has a just idea of how hard life may be for a peer. To many this would come as a shock, especially the immigrants that fight so hard to get to land that is supposed to be free, “the place of possibilities”, and one that is supposed to be “the land of opportunity”. All their life they have been told this, yet to them it is a mere dream a dream that later they may decide to risk their life’s for. Yet to those before them that had the same dream, it may not be a nightmare and if chance arose they would
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