American Freedom

Land of the free, home of the brave, right? That's what America is. Or, at least, that is the image of what America should be. That is the dream that we struggle to get out of our heads and into the hearts of all of our country's citizens. America is dying, her dream continuing to be unrealized, even after over two-hundred years of having been dreamt.

It seems that our people have just grown too cocky to ever humble themselves enough to actually live up to how great America really is. I, for one, am guilty of never thinking about how my actions might hurt someone else and Americans, as a whole, are not much different than I am. Never do we sit down and ask ourselves if what we're doing is really what is needed, or is it just something that we happen to want. Americans are greedy and we haven't realized that our greed will eventually cause us to crumble.

Have you ever wondered why so many people outside the US don't have a high opinion of Americans? Maybe it's because everything we do warrants such an opinion. I happen to know, from a first-hand experience, that it tends to be the insolent ones who open their mouths and everything that comes out of their mouths is crude and mean-spirited garbage. Yes, we Americans certainly do give ourselves quite an image.

Every time I go out of the country, I can always tell the Americans from the natives. It is simply their demeanor. Americans are the ones who are loud, obnoxious, and they tend to be the ones who expect everything to stop just simply because they are there. Hey, I know, I've seen it. People are often surprised when I say that I am from the States. "Oh, I wish all Americans were like you," I remember one woman say to me when I visited Turkey a few years back. Yeah, that's right, more like me. More who actually give some consideration as to whether they are following the customs; ones who don't think that they're the only one in a five thousand mile radius that matters.

For those Americans whom I am pissing off right now, tough luck. Somewhere in your heart, you know that America is no where near what her dream is. You might argue that not all Americans are like that, that some of them are respectful and humble and some are. But, then again, not all Muslims are like Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, which some Americans seem to think.

A few months ago, I was walking down the street to my friends house to pick her up, continue on to the mall and then lunch afterwards. Across the street, there was a Muslim woman walking, covered in all black from head to toe and with a veil over her eyes. A red mustang drove up and stopped next to her. Even though I was across the street, I could hear the stuff they were calling her. I heard "Osama's Bitch" and "Cowardly Terrorist", as well as statements such as "Go home to your master". When the car drove away, the woman was crouching on the sidewalk and crying.

I still hadn't reached my friend's house and knew that I'd be late if I stopped to helped the woman, but I went across the street to comfort her anyway. The car had driven off before I could get the license plate number, but I managed to help the woman to my friend's where her mother gave the woman some water and called her house to have someone pick her up. She told my friend and I to go to the mall, but neither my friend nor I would leave until we saw that the woman was safe. Her husband finally showed up and took her home, thanking us again and again for being so kind to her. Only after she was gone did we go to the mall.

It pains me greatly to see that my country, a place that I hold dearly in my heart, should be falling so short of her dream. It pains me even more that it took 9-11 for some people to even realize what America's dream even is. But, what pains me the most is that there are still those of us who feel that Americans are better than everyone else, that we, because we are so powerful and so rich, are somehow more important than those who don't have as much as we do. There are so many of us who wonder why people hate America. Well, take a look at some of the people around you. While I'm not saying that the hatred that some people have for America is right or that the avenue they use to show their hate is correct, I am saying that maybe their hatred is somewhat grounded. Maybe we really did bring some of it on ourselves. I am of the opinion that I while I am not better than anyone, I certainly am equal to everyone. We are all human beings, we all share this earth, it's about time that we really bring America's dream to life and guaruntee freedom and equality to all.