God Bless America

Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence says as such:

We hold these truths 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.

And thus, America, as an idea and as a nation, was birthed. 

We the People of America have always believed we were special. We were innovators, leaders that paved the way for other nations. We were the goats of the social contract, of political progress. We fought the British for independence (twice), and built our newfound nation on the principles of Democracy, Equality, and Freedom.

However, it's taken many subsequent revolutions to preserve these ideals. Because the truth, as Benjamin Banneker reveals, is that even those who wrote those words down in ink, and revered them almost to a religious degree, did not believe them to be true for all people. Not the black slaves that they kept in chains. Not the women, always second-class to the men. Not the disabled, constantly persecuted and viewed as distasteful objects. Nor the LGBTQ+, who were subject to legal prosecution and hostility. And certainly, not the immigrants who came to the country, bringing their own cultures, religions, and dreams. 

We've made so much progress. There was the Civil War in 1865, then the Civil Rights Movement in 1965, respectively freeing slaves and ending legal segregation. In 1920, women's suffrage was finally written into our constitution. Subsequent laws have been passed to give women more equality in the workplace and academia alike. The Immigration Act of 1924, which excluded Asian immigrants, has since been repealed. The Americans with Disabilities Act prevented discrimination against disabled Americans in various metrics. Queer marriage has been legalized in many states; the list goes on.

Of course, social equality is not the same as human rights. The still pertinent works of Deborah Tannen, Nancy Mair, and Brent Staples makes this clear. However, basic, equal rights have been established for all people who live in this nation. These rights have allowed us to become a nation of many colors, full of cultures, viewpoints, and histories. This multicolored nature of our country is one of our biggest points of pride. For years, we've proclaimed that we are better for all our differences, heralding the United States of America as a melting pot. 

Yet, we as Americans didn't make this progress to fulfill the visions of our founding fathers, we made it despite their visions. Because their visions, unfortunately, did not include us. We've surpassed what America was "supposed to be", and become something better. 

So when our ideals, the core of our nation, are attacked by the very government built to protect them, I do not mourn the will of the founding fathers. I mourn the will of the People, the residents of America. 

When DEI as a whole is dismantled; When our administration pushes a return to traditionalism; when immigrants are being targeted, sent to concentration camps and split from their families, and dehumanized as aliens; when people like Keith Porter Jr. and Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres and Geraldo Lucas Campos and Víctor Manuel Díaz and Parody La and Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz and Heber Sánchez Domínguez and Alex Pretti and Renee Good die at the hands of ICE, I do not think of the atrocities committed by another nation, I think of the slave catchers and of the Japanese internment camps. I think of the lynchings denounced by Ida B. Wells. I think of my APUSH textbook with a shiver, not just because APUSH was a struggle for me, but because this behavior is not a deviation from our history. This is a continuation of our history. The enemy of the People of America was never another nation. The wars we fought for our rights were always Civil Wars. 

Have you noticed? Can you hear the gunshots? 

When the administration speaks of federalizing our elections, where is our Democracy?

When people are being detained and killed for the color of their skin, where is our Equality? 

When news sources are being suppressed, when protestors are being shot, where is our Freedom?

As students, we can trivialize these events because they do not yet affect us. We can come to school every day, complain about having to write an ICE in AP Lang, we can wonder what's for lunch and talk about the Bad Bunny Superbowl. 

We do not have to wonder when ICE will come for us during lunch. We do not need to wear a bulletproof vest like Bad Bunny will need to during the Superbowl. 

You can believe that protests will have no effect, and maybe it will be so. You can think that all of this is too contreversial to talk about and choose to say nothing. But it will continue to happen, because this is our reality. And I'm no activist, so maybe that makes me a hypocrite. But how can I watch all of this go down and not feel a deep sense of wrong in my heart? I’m not saying we should all become activists either, but at the very least, we should not turn a blind eye to our country, to our people, being pillaged by hate and fear. We owe our fellow humans our voices. At the very least, we owe them our attention.

I still love America. I love being American. I love Troy High school, where I can speak to other students that come from all over. I love that we have a Patel Brothers next to a Matcha Maiko next to a Shish Island Grill. I love that I will get to see Bad Bunny perform Debi Tirar Mas Fotos tonight at the Benito Bowl!!! 

These are the luxuries that we need to protect. This is the America that bloomed despite adversity and discrimination, reminding me that there is still much of our beautiful nation that remains.

Tonight, if you watch the Super Bowl, you'll hear the national anthem ring throughout the stadium, and perhaps throughout your living room. I used a line from that anthem in my previous blog, wherein I spoke of Sarah Vowell and being a partly-cloudy patriot. Rereading her piece, I find myself repeating many of her sentiments now. So I'll end this blog with a quote from her, and a question.

"The other day, in the subway at 5:30, I was crammed into my sweaty, crabby, fellow citizens, and I kept whispering under my breath 'we the people, we the people', over and over again, reminding myself we're all in this together and they had as much right---exactly as much right---as I had to be in the muggy undeground on their way to wherever they were on their way to" (Vowell para. 25).

O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave, 

Over the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 

protesting students atop a public art instillation

"Reclaiming", by Eric J. Smith, 2026

If you’ve read my previous blogs, you probably are sick of me talking about the same things over and over (America, “the melting pot”, etc) 

My bad but I will always be looking for ways to articulate my feelings and ideas properly, and this has been on my mind!