The Misperception of the Golden Age
In the midst of the current presidential campaign we’ve been
given perhaps the most polarizing candidate in recent years in Donald Trump. It
seems people either love him or hate him. If I were going off of my news feed
on Facebook I’d go out on a limb and say my generation is the latter.
I find this a bit ironic. We weren’t around in the middle of
the Civil Rights Movement or Vietnam – times when America was deeply divided,
and yet millennials aren’t fooled by the pithy slogan “Make America great again.”
We respect that discontent can remedy complacency and ultimately continue to
improve our country, however, we will not be suckered into forgetting that
America is great. We are infinitely closer to equality for our citizens than we
were at any point before in American history.
Racism still exists. That’s a fact – we need to acknowledge
that and have real dialogue as a country to provide minorities with the same
opportunities that any white male is given. Are we better off in this regard
than in past eras? Absolutely. Is gender equality improving? Slowly, but
surely. Thank upward mobility. And our citizens in the gay and lesbian
community, well disagree if you will, but they’re finally starting to get the
same rights as heterosexuals, the rights they deserve.
America is great. We’ve hit a bump in the road with the
economy. Even a mountin, if you will. The global economy hasn’t been doing so
hot either. But as a nation we’re progressing. If we’re really concerned with
living up to our title as the “Land of the Free” we’ve got bigger fish to fry –
let’s find a way to decrease incarceration rates of our own people, instead of
romanticizing a chapter in which our nation was bitterly divided.
0 comments:
Post a Comment