The United States – a Beacon of Hope

The US sees itself as a unique country and as “a city upon a hill”, which means the U.S sees itself as a beacon of hope because they accept everyone which is in a way unique compared to other countries. The U.S was at one point a new country with a clean slate. The U.S had a potential that one back then could never foresee. America was a country full of hopes and dreams which gave their migrants plenty of hope for a new and better life. America was successful in achieving its goals since America is often referred to as “Land of Opportunity”. The Colonies back then wanted to be different from Great Britain. When they first colonized America they had hopes of doing better for its citizens than Great Britain did. The U.S hoped to avoid religious persecution and blindness loyalty to a monarch. They hoped that America would be a country open to everyone looking for a chance to start over and live a better life. They accomplished their goals even though it took them a while. The U.S is now free of speech and a republic so they would never fear a king or queen forcing us to follow their every command without reason. Citizens of the U.S are free to practice whatever religion or tradition they want, if any, without the worries of legal persecution or being judged for our cultural choices…for the most part. The U.S is a unique country because it was the first country to gain independence from its Mother Country. Since they gained independence they had to get used to being on their own which required them to look for new ways to try and stabilize themselves. Because of this, the U.S was able to place themselves at a higher standard than other countries because they established the idea that the people should have the greatest say in what goes on in their country. America is ruled by the people, not the state, not a group of elite people, and definitely not by a single individual. The U.S is no doubt the strongest country in the world because they were able to control the people with a strong federal government but not in a monarch way, which lots of countries fail to do so.

An aspect I have found while studying US history that substantiates this vision is that the U.S does face horrible things but always finds a way to overcome it such as when Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery and gave hope to millions of slaves that the worst part is over and that it was time to move on to better times. No matter what problem the U.S faces, it will overcome it because there is hope for a better future here, and my favorite example of this is Barack Obama being the First Black President. This is a great example because Obama was elected President in 2009, but 45 years earlier, in 1964, segregation barely ended. This meant that 45 years before Obama was elected, Barack Obama would not have been able to even go to a school with white people and would have never been able to lead a country with the majority of the population being white.

I believe we still are a city upon a hill, we might have bad moments such as our gun control problem, but we will overcome it and create better laws one day because there is hope for us still to improve. We face many challenges today and because of it, our original goals have changed a bit. No longer is the U.S a place welcoming everyone with open arms because it is too dangerous for a nation as big and powerful, and with as many enemies, as the U.S to trust all foreigners. While our current President clearly has something against immigrants and the act of immigration, immigration is what makes us so unique because we are a “melting pot” with so many different cultures and is one of the few countries to not only tolerate but praise different cultures…for the most part.