This is America

By Matthew Otten, Staff Writer

America is a huge marble mansion. It is placed on top of a hilltop safe from the rest of the dangerous in the world. It has it’s doors open to anyone who wants to enjoy its fruits of labor that it has inside. America is the most beautiful mansion, but America’s foundation is made of sand. It looks like the greatest place to be, but hides a dark secret that is dangerous to all who are inside. 

America is a great mansion for all who want to come. America started construction with the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson.  With the foundation already set, it was time for the second continental congress to pull up the walls.  The walls were beautiful to the eye of anyone who looked at it. The walls were built by a few truths: “…These truths that we hold to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  These walls were set to protect everyone’s unalienable rights who are inside the house. The next thing that was made was the walls inside the mansion. These walls were made of material easy to pick up and move, because “…It is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” They made these walls this way for the people inside. Once the people inside think it is unfair or incorrect it is their right to change it to make it better for everyone inside. The final step in creating this majestic mansion was to set a roof on top of it. This roof was made of the promise of everyone: “… with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  This roof was made with the promise that everyone inside the mansion will protect it to the best of their abilities. With this great mansions  this is one of the best to ever be created and it is great for everyone who lives in it. 

There is one huge mistake with the mansion that is America. This foundation was built long before anything was built on it. It was made of sand and barely held up itself. In “The Idea of America,” Nikole Hannah-Jones writes that “The year 1619 is as important to the American story as 1776,” because this was the day construction on the foundation was built. This was the day that slaves were forced to build the foundation, with no promise to get anything but another day of life. This foundation ended up damaging the mansion. The walls would begin to start cracking. These cracks would end up damaging the truths the house was built into it. The truths that we held self evident would only apply to white men. These cracks would keep almost everyone else from having these truths, and it took a very long time till only a few of these truths would actually be fixed. The foundation also made it difficult to move the walls inside the mansion. Seeing that some of these walls inside of the mansion were very unfair they would plan on moving them. One of the walls made in the house made one room very small. This room was the rights of African Americans. This wall was connected to the foundation and didn’t move around freely like the rest of the walls. It took a long time and a lot of struggle to move this wall and people are still having to push it to this day in hope that it will be equal to the whites room. The roof had also been damaged. The roof that was made with the promise that everyone inside the house will promise to protect it was now falling apart. This promise had not been held up. Many people have gone against this promise. Most of the time it has been because of the moving of the room. There are still people to this day wanting to tear down the house because a wall has moved that they didn’t want to move. 

America could have been the most gorgeous mansion of all time if it hadn’t been built on a bad foundation made of sand. America needs everyone in the mansion to fix the cracks that the people long ago have created. With the help and teamwork of everyone inside America can once again be beautiful to everyone who sees it. Right now it needs help to fix it. It is helpless without the people fixing it. 

This is America.