Idiocrasy: America's Founding Ideals And What Went Wrong

The general argument made by Jamie Dailey in “Modern- day Witch Hunts: Broadly targeting the Muslim Community is antithetical to America’s founding ideas” is that after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 the Muslim Community seems to be targeted. More specifically, Dailey is stating that the irrational fear and paranoia present in American Society causes racial and religious discrimination of the Muslims. Dailey writes about mosques, which are Islamic places of worship, and how they have been recently targeted. Dailey writes, “ In Glendale, Arizona, a bottle filled with acid was thrown at a mosque while mosque officials stood nearby. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, protestors picketed a mosque celebrating Ramadan and shouted slurs”

Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The history of our country, I point out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a reality — and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that.” (making history,

Throughout the annals of American history, the advocation for freedom, and the absorption of ideals such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been at the forefront of the American belief. These beliefs were implemented in 1776, through the Declaration of Independence. This document was ratified by recalcitrant Americans who would not tolerate subjection to tyrannical rule. The American people hoped this document would seal their fate in relation to Europe, and prove to Europe, and frankly the entire world, that they were a separate, sufficient nation. But as the years unfolded, the realization that America would continue to be considered an inferior nation arose.

According to an article on CNN, Muslims only make up less than one percent of the American population (Yan). This number can be surprising to many Americans because of what they see and hear on media. There are many misconceptions about Muslims in our society that is causing hate towards them. Through a personal story in Suzanne Barakat’s speech titled “Islamophobia killed my brother. Let’s end the hate” she effectively shows how bigotry against Muslims is a problem in society.

America is the land of the free and home of the brave, but has it always been? If someone were to reference old documents like The Declaration of Independence or even The Constitution they would think so, but American history itself says otherwise. During the mid 1770’s slavery was an almost unquestioned normality and women had no rights, however when The Declaration of Independence was written, the statement, “all men are created equal” appeared while Thomas Jefferson stated the natural rights of every human. This statement is clearly not true in the eyes of the men who wrote and edited this document, hence proving that the statement “all men were created equal” is hypocritical. In accordance to primary sources gained from this period of intolerance and recreations of it, it is clear that not only were the women not treated as equal, but the African men and women treated as property were also stripped of the three main rights and liberties the Declaration argues for.

Throughout the annals of American history, the advocation for freedom, and the absorption of ideals such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been at the forefront of the American belief. These beliefs were implemented in 1776 through the Declaration of Independence. This document was ratified by recalcitrant Americans who would not tolerate subjection to tyrannical rule. The American people hoped this document would seal their fate in relation to Europe, and prove to them, and frankly the entire world, that they were a separate, sufficient nation. But as the years unfolded, the realization that America would continue to be considered an inferior nation arose.

Within the early revolutionary epoch of American history brought various interpretations of the country. Thomas Paine characterized this country in an excerpt from his work the Rights of Man. Unfortunately, Thomas Paine’s characterization of America does not entirely hold truth today, and can be evident in our country’s political and identity ideologies. The key points within the excerpt implies that America is a country where a multitude of cultures, religions, and languages coexist. Paine suggests that our government, which was created “on the principles of society and the rights of man”, is able to overcome the differences of political and racial beliefs.

“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…”. This infamous excerpt from the Declaration of Independence exhibits the many fallacies that the United States feeds its citizens. The only thing “evident” is the misconception that “all men” actually means “white men”. Throughout history the people in power have showed us their agenda to oppress the minorities and uplift the white race. The alt-right movement is another movement used the uplift the white race.

‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’ On the 28th of August, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial declaring to over 250.000 citizens that he had a dream. A dream that one day, all men and women, whether black or white, Jewish or Christian, would be treated as equals. More than fifty years later, King’s dream seems to be nothing more than that: a dream. Just last year, Eric Garner, a black man, is choked to death by the police force in Staten Island, New York.

In fact, according to a study of attitudes towards Muslim Americans post 9/11, after 9/11 “the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans between 2000 to 2001” (Khan). While discrimination towards Muslim Americans existed before, after 9/11 the general public’s view of Muslim Americans rapidly declined and resulted in an increase in the Muslim-terrorist stereotype as well as many individuals having to face unwanted hostility. In a study on microaggressions directed towards Muslim Americans, a participant shared, “’A truck driver said to my mom, ‘Say hi to Osama,”’ presuming that because she was Muslim she was associated with terrorism (Nadal). While in another case, a participant described how because his name was Osama, his seventh grade teacher “accidentally” called him Osama bin Laden during attendance, “but [he knew]

The discussion of hate crime has been very delicate over the past few months, from ISIS to police brutality. In this paper situations involving hate crime will be discussed such as the background; history of hate crime like the holocaust; special groups and genders that get “hated” on such as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and Jews; examples of hate crime; prominent figures like Donald Trump and his anti- Muslim and anti-immigrant policies as well as news pieces of hate crime; groups for and against other races like the black lives matter movement; statistics of hate crime and hate groups in the U.S.; the argument that

We should improve the laws against hate crimes and even create a few new laws that will allow for an increase in the funding of police departments because it will allow the police officers to be trained properly to be able to identify acts of abuse better. In doing so will allow for a safer environment specifically for Middle Eastern Americans. With the proper training, officers can use religion as an aspect of investigation and not identification which is discussed in the paper “Walking While Muslim.” In this paper, Margaret Chon and Donna Arzt describe that one of the struggles of being Middle Eastern is automatically being identified as Muslim, and vice versa, even though that may not be the case. Chon and Arzt helped shape my idea of a solution because they declare in their paper that “religion should be closely examined as an analytic category” (Arzt and Chon, 2005) rather than unsystematic when regarding “the law and policy of counter-terrorism” (Arzt and Chon, 2005) because religion cannot be used as a description for a person since it’s a choice.

Every since America became its own country there has been this obsession with an idea of n American dream. The American dream is this idea where all Americans have are equal and have equals opportunities and achieving prosperity together. The truth is that their America is built with people that are on pedestals and have more control over important things that can have a major effect on America as a whole. This leaves the minority with no rights that they can stand up for that can truly make a difference.

America’s society has some distinctive characteristics that separate it from that of the rest of the world. Although diverse, the American society is unified in the number of traits that they all share. All American citizens value their individuality as well as their equality. Americans are not afraid to voice their opinions or to oppose something that they disagree with. If there is something that is not right, Americans will not hesitate to work towards positive change of that cause.

Equality in America America and its people have worked hard to create a home in which everyone is treated, and feels equal. We’ve fought wars, held protests, and lost many lives in situations where we were fighting for fair treatment. After all of these sacrifices, it's safe to say that Americans have the right to love, and cherish the equality that their home presents them with, but to an extent. Equality in society, government, and basic human interactions should always be kept, and held with great importance. However, we also need to keep in mind that we are not the same people.