Baggett 1

Isabel Baggett

Justice

AP/IB English

6 January 2019

As A Divided Nation, We Stand

We have repeated the words since we were children: ¨One nation, under God,

indivisible with liberty and justice for all.¨ We have preached the ideals that America could never

falter because no outside force can stop us when in reality, it is ourselves that are hindering our

ability as a nation to come together and unite. Over the past couple of years, it has become more

and more evident that our country is separating. We have lost our ability to communicate and

understand one another. We have lost our compassion and our understanding. ​We are a nation

that is divided. We are separated. We are split. We are incomplete.

This issue has been ongoing since the colonists arrived in America. Through slavery, the

forceful removal of Native Americans, internment camps, and discrimination on the basis of

race, religion, gender, and sexuality. Our nation has never been whole. We still haven't healed

from the way our ancestors founded the country while preaching that every American is equal

when in reality this was only for the white men. The division has been among us from the

beginning. Over the years, we have realized this separation, this space between the white man

and ourselves, and have fought to overcome it. And although we have come a long way, still we

struggle to see our nation as a whole.

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But it is not just the division between the white man and the rest of America, ​it is the

division between the white man and the people of color who were constantly treated as ¨aliens¨,

people that could be kept as property instead of treated as real human beings. Between the white

man and the women who fight every day to be heard over the voice of men, to have their

thoughts voiced and their opinion matter (because it does). Between the white man and the queer

who were labeled as ¨faggots¨ and cast to the outside in fear that they would turn their children

into something sinful. Between the white man and the people who do not believe in their God,

from people who came to America to find freedom of religion, but are instead attacked and

ostracized every day just because they believe something different from what they do. ​They

separated themselves from the people that make America America because they are afraid of

what might happen if they take control. If they have a say. If they have any power whatsoever.

It is also the separation of our minds and values. The first time that this division was

evident in my lifetime was the 2016 US election. I had never before been fearful of a president,

of someone who is supposed to have our, the American people’s, best interest in mind. I had

never before been afraid of my future, of what this could mean for my kids, for my marriage, for

my friends and family- what this could mean for our country. And since then, it has been harder

and harder for us to understand and listen to one another because we cannot even fathom that we

might be wrong. Instead, we choose to block out the other side. I think this is what separates us

the most: the fact that we cannot get over our set ways and hear the voices of our neighbors. The

fact that we can´t love each other or treat each other equally and with kindness. ​We use our

words to hurt and scorn and we fight and butcher and kill and tear apart families and break up

marriages and treat others horribly because we believe that we are better. ​Superior. Divine.
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I cannot speak for everyone, but for myself, I feel very distant from my government and a

lot of the people in this country. I feel hated and unwanted sometimes because of the awful

things that people say to people like me, people who are different and do not fit into the “box”

society has created. ​We have to end this idea that there is only one acceptable type of person in

this world.​ We are a melting pot of cultures, identities, and ways of life. American is not just the

straight white man’s country. It is also the Muslim's and the Native American’s and the queer’s

and the immigrant’s and so forth. America is ours.

If this idea of separation does not end soon, our Nation could quite literally divide. We

are already talking about separating ourselves from our neighboring country. If we look at our

history, how we have contained people who do not look or think like us, we could end up

repeating ourselves again. ​In order to overcome this, we have to overcome our mindset. ​“To

survive in peace and harmony, united and strong, we must have one people, one nation, one

flag,” says Pauline Hanson.​ We have to move past what our parents have taught us, what society

has taught us, and understand that there are more than two sides to one story. We have to open

our hearts and our minds to those over others and we have to love wholly and unconditionally

because without love and compassion our world would be filled with darkness.​ ¨We¨ because I

know that none of us are perfect, not even myself. I know that even my mind, as accepting as I

believe it is, still is influenced by society and how it views other people. I too have to open my

mind to the thoughts of others, even if I know I will never agree with them because I would want

them to do the same for me. And in the end, maybe if we all open our hearts, and maybe even

our minds, we can overpower the one thing that divides us the most: ourselves.
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Key:

Asyndeton 1/1

Polysyndeton 1/1

Anaphora 2/2

Imperative ½