CH Essay 2

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American Exceptionalism Although I agree with some aspects of American exceptionalism, I disagree with more. I think of American exceptionalism as more of an idea than a reality. Some people think that our country is superior to all, and that is their opinion. I do not agree with this though because all the evidence points against it. Even though our country has had many successes and feats throughout history, we struggle just like any other country. Instead of recognizing our faults, we focus on our successes and that lays the problem. We are far from a perfect country, and although we are a great one, we should not be considered exceptional compared to the rest of the world. I think that the theory of American exceptionalism does not accurately describe the origin, provenance, institutions, experience, and actions of this country. Although I do not agree with the majority of areas in which American exceptionalism is highlighted, I do agree that it does pertain to the provenance and the foundations of our country. When our country was being founded, we wanted to cut off all ties with Britain and establish ourselves as an independent country with freedoms and rights that other countries did not provide. In this aspect of things I believe that although our country is far from perfect, we were striving for what we defined perfection as. When the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were being made, things such as liberty and equality were emphasized, however what the founding fathers defined as equal is not necessarily correct. For example, it states in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” however our country contradicted ourselves and made excuses about how that applied to slavery. The thirteenth amendment was modified in 1865 and finally put an end to slavery, however the concept of equality still was not being practiced. Another racial example was the Brown vs. Board of Education case that argued whether “separate but equal” was fair in public schooling. Simply the words of this law contradicted themselves. If white and black kids were truly equal, then why were they being forced into a different education system that limited their opportunities to succeed? The ruling at the end of the case in 1954 was that "in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal…” Even though the end result was pleasing, it should have never been an issue according to the rules of the Declaration of Independence. Our founding written documents had the right wording and idea, however their words were bent and modified to fit specific situations far too much, and some of the laws were written in a way that was fairly easy to twist the words around in order to interpret the meaning differently. Although the intentions were there, the follow through was not. The institutions in our country also contradict the ideas of American Exceptionalism because it is impossible to always be fair and equal. Our public schooling system is a huge example of this. The story of Zitkala-sa that we read was an instance in which American exceptionalism was amplified when it should not have been. Zitkala-sa was an Indian girl that lived in the states with her family when the Americans came to take over their land. She, as well as all the other Indian girls and boys, was forced into the “Americanized” public schooling system in which stripped down her identity of an Indian girl and took away her culture. She called this the civilizing machine that’s purpose was to take the Indian out of Indians. There was a government policy that was instituted in 1887 called the Dawes Act. This law was made once the Americans began seizing Indian territory and it meant that if the Indians were willing to give up their traditions and culture, they could become a functioning member of American society. This was an instance in which American exceptionalism
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