Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights that have and continue to be associated with America. For many years this country has practiced these beliefs with minimal failure, managing to continue in a strong and proud existence since 1776. These rights and the national identity they are associated with continue to endure in our lands because of our unity in the ideals of constant resistance against external threats and the strength of our meritocracy, two defining factors in our national identity. No matter what part of this nation we originate from, these ideals are essential parts of our character.
Throughout this nation’s existence, threats such as what one Newsweek author …show more content…
Another bold phrase proffered by Lincoln, declared in the Emancipation Proclamation, was that “All [slaves]… shall be free” in the U. S., a concept which has driven our nation ever since [1]. By refusing to deny people freedom in job choice, our lives are determined based on no credentials other than skill. It is in this way that the U. S. has honed and perfected a collection of the world’s greatest scholars and generals. This process of allowing and promoting excellent leadership has given us a distinct advantage in any conflicts we have found ourselves in since the beginning of our nation. To elaborate, our nation has a system of organized labor based on talent, something that countries with class based labor can never hope to rival. A Newsweek article on this theme employed a logos based simile to explain the success of our nation, saying that the U. S. is “like … quilts”, creating “[from] many, one” in that it is made up of many different communities [Quindlen 1]. This patchwork collection of communities has enabled us to pick and choose the best of each for our leadership, giving us generals and politicians who far exceed the skill of those of other nations. This can be logically likened to a quilt, whose various fabrics allow for a selection of many different fine cloths to be combined. By having the best of many worlds, the U. S. has become the best in the world, taking from every minority and majority in the world their brightest and most