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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The USA (01/08/09)
When I was growing up, I learned the reasons I should be grateful to live in the United States of America. My mother taught me about different countries, and the individual issues their inhabitant’s face. I learned of the starving people across the globe who would kill to eat my soggy green beans because they had no food at all. My mother explained to me that children in other countries were beaten if they disrespected their parents, and that I was lucky to only receive a few firm slaps on the behind when I disobeyed.

In high school and college, I learned about the cruel and unjust treatment of women around the world and became truly grateful that I am treated with respect and dignity in my country. Thanks to the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, I now am expected to work for a living while simultaneously working as a full time mother and wife, doubling my workload and adding to my daily demands. I am also now able to kill my unwanted children, divorce my husband, and become a lesbian if I want to.

The truth is, however, that, although far from a perfect society - and there is no such place on this planet - the United States of America represents hope, is a defender of the weak, and is as close to free as one can achieve in this world.

People bound to communist rule and oppression dream of fleeing to America where they can live peacefully and on their own terms. When they get here, however, it is not as perfect as they might have thought. People immigrating to America have idealistic expectations that may or may not always come to be reality.

The United States is also known as a defender of the weak. For one reason or another, it seems that we always find ourselves in the middle of world wars, terrorist battles, and fights for democracy around the world. At least some of the time, the United States is successful at bringing about positive change around the world - if that change means making other countries more like us.

America stands for freedom. Yes, the United States enjoys freedoms that other countries would not even dream of. And yes, there is so much in this country that its residents take for granted (including me, I might add). But true freedom we do not have. We, as Americans, are bound by laws and social stigmas that regulate our actions just as much as any other country on this planet.

The United States of America offers hope for immigrants, protection and liberation for other countries (whether they like it or not), and freedom to its citizens (and illegal aliens sometimes, too.) Obviously, my homeland is not the utopia it is sometimes made out to be. And lately, more and more of the world’s population is realizing that fact. Because of military force and unwanted assistance abroad, our reputation around the world has plummeted over the last ten years. Because of economic carelessness and overspending, our currency is not as valued as used to be. Because of America’s abuse of its freedoms, we have become a nation of spoiled brats, insisting on immediate gratification and saturated with moral irresponsibility, clawing at each other over trivial disagreements while allowing a complete decay in national virtue and decency.

Is it too late for our dear country? Shall we continue our descent into rotting oblivion? I hope not. We are in desperate need of a revival. Will it come with a new President or Senate majority? Will it come with Hollywood leading the way? I don’t think so. The help we need will only come by God’s grace. It will only come when we Christians start believing that we have the power to make a difference, because we serve a God that is bigger than our national dysfunction. Our God has the power to destroy us or to save us. We should not trust in government or celebrities or new age authors or leaders. Our trust needs to be planted firmly in He who is the only way out, the only escape, the only hope for revival and rebuilding. Our hope needs to be only in God Himself. As Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church says, “I do not place my faith in the man we put in the White House. I place my faith in the man we hung on the cross.”
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Jan Ackerson
01/15/09
Thanks for writing this well-organized and interesting essay.

I felt that at times it lacked focus--you seemed to go back and forth between the aspects of the USA that are wonderful and those that are dysfunctional.

Good title.
joe hodson
01/16/09
I like how you ended it, especially with the insightful Rick Warren quote. I do agree with Jan, however. Your transitions between ideas could be a little smoother. You had good thoughts, and I get the gist of your essay. However, sometimes I felt you were leading me one way and then blindsighted me with something else. I think a quick fix would be if you divided up your different ideas by topic sentences and paragraphs. Nonetheless, you make some good points.