Land of the free, home of the brave

The Washington Monument, Mt. Rushmore — these places were the pride and pinnacle of what America should’ve been. I mean, the Washington Monument was where Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, advocating for millions of Black people. Mt. Rushmore was built in honor of the founding fathers — the very people who built America from the ground up. Throughout all the countries, we were revered for being strong, for being tactical with decisions. Even the countries that couldn't even stand the sight of us could spare a penny for an ounce of respect. That's what the message was: “America, home of the brave and land of the free”. This is what many soldiers fought and died for. My parents moved here for a reason — this land was dubbed the Land of Equal Opportunity. But now? That is not the message I’m seeing. Other countries have put us on various watchlists in fear that we are going to have a revolution. People are scared to come out of their homes in genuine fear that they are going to be stripped of their rights, all because of their skin color. Women are being penalized for doing something that is a basic right. If they don’t want a child and are forced to have one, this could ruin whatever plans they had/have. They could even die in the process of childbirth. The lack of empathy is concerning. People who have been sexually assaulted or harmed by another individual are not getting the justice they deserve; they are getting brushed off and put aside due to some minor technicality. People are getting shot up in schools, in their homes - getting taken away from their children and family, and no one of authority seems to notice or care. Instead of implementing better gun laws, they want to have another grand party in their big mansion. Instead of securing rights for women, they want to have an athletics competition for no rhyme or reason. Blowing another $100,000,000 as if it's nothing. That money could be used for good, maybe giving the homeless population a leg up. Giving impoverished people something to look forward to, but sure — spend it on the military. The message the US is sending the world is that we — as human beings — don't care enough to act. Even if we try, we’ll get shut down or shunned. We claim that we want to inspire a feeling of hope, inspire the American Dream. The American Dream was a lie spoken by those who wanted to see change, who were seeing change in the world. In this country. Unfortunately, the white picket fence went down as soon as it went up. And from the looks of it, it’s not getting rebuilt anytime soon.