Assignment # 3 Due 10/01/13

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.”

Samuel Adams- “The Rights of the Colonists”

     In "The Rights of the Colonists" by Samuel Adams, Adams is expressing his loyalty to the colonists, as he greatly believed in them. He believed that the colonists should have three rights, the right to life, liberty and property. The colonists’ right to life is defined as the right to live life by the choices and decisions one chooses to make. No one has the freedom to terminate another person’s life. The colonists’ right to liberty is defined by freedom. The colonists’ freedom is determined by their individual roles and responsibilities in the society in which they live. For example, a land owner has the freedom to grow and sell crops as defined by the role he plays in the society in which he lives. However, he does not have the freedom to make and create laws as he is not an elected government official. The colonists right to own land defines the colonists’ right to property. In Adam’s opinion, these rights are so crucial and critical that the colonists have the right to defend them in the way that suits them best. As previously mentioned, Adam’s believes in the colonists and the rights of the colonists, which is why he is explicitly stating what their rights should be. 

“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.”

Thomas Jefferson- “The Declaration of Independence”

     In this quote taken from the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson is stating the rights of the people. According to Jefferson, all men are created equal. This means that no one race, person, sex, religion etc has more power or control than another. No one is beneath anyone. We were all born human and have the same equal rights. Those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One’s right to live without their life being terminated by another person defines the right to life. The right to liberty is defined by one’s freedom. One’s right to try and find happiness in their life defines the right to the pursuit of happiness. No one has the legal authority to take these rights from a person.

     Samuel Adam’s quote relates to our lecture in how it explicitly challenges the government. Adam’s states that the colonists have the right to defend their rights in the best manner they can. This gives the colonists the right to rebel against the government. Thomas Jefferson also challenges the government by calling the rights of the people unalienable. Because the rights of the people are unalienable the government does not have the legal right to take them away from the people. This is a subtle way of rebelling against the government. As stated in the lecture, without the “revolutionary liberal ideology” of thinkers like Adam and Jefferson the American Revolution may not have taken place. If the American Revolution had not taken place, the United States of America that we live in today would be very different.

Assignment # 2

     "In truth it is inequality that is the illusion. The extreme disproportion between men, that we seem to see in life, is a thing of changing lights and lengthening shadows, a twilight full of fancies and distortions. We find a man famous and cannot live long enough to find him forgotten; we see a race dominant and cannot linger to see it decay. It is the experience of men that always returns to the equality of men; it is the average that ultimately justifies the average man. It is when men have seen and suffered much and come at the end of more elaborate experiments, that they see men as men under an equal light of death and daily laughter; and none the less mysterious for being many."

     In this quote the author is talking about inequality and America. As previously mentioned, the very basis and foundation of America stems from the variety and diversity of immigrants who came here from all over the world. Therefore, the idea that one person, race, culture, etc. is more dominant than another is not true. The race and/or people that seem to hold all the power at the present moment does not keep that "power" forever. We as humans are physically incapable of seeing the downfall of everything and everyone. We were not made to live forever. The race or person who seems like they have it all today will not have it all 100 years later as they too will die and/or someone else with more "power" will arise. Inequality is a notion that we as people made up in order to explain the differences between one another. We all suffer the same tragic experiences. We are all human and we are all equal. We all experience death. We all bleed red blood. We all need the same basic necessities to survive in life. Inequality is just an illusion. 

     I chose this quote because growing up in America I often here the terms inequality, racial discrimination, etc. Reading that inequality is an illusion was interesting to me. In my opinion the author is wrong. Inequality is not an illusion. People experience inequality everyday based on their race, gender, sexuality and so forth. Although a person with power will one day lose that power once they die, their legacy will still remain. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been dead many years, yet we still study his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement and celebrate his legacy. I agree that we are all the same as in we were all born human, however America divides us based on race, gender, sexuality etc. The fact that we are divided is evidence that we are not all equal because if we were there would be no need to categorize us by these different subsets. 


     

Assignment # 1

Quote: "Our cities are filled with these half-breeds who retain their foreign names but have lost the foreign savor. This does not mean that they have actually been changed into New Englanders or Middle Westerners. It does not mean that they have been really Americanized. It means that, letting slip from them whatever native culture they had, they have substituted for it only the most rudimentary American..."

     In this quote I think the author is trying to explain to readers that the United States of America is comprised of immigrants from many different cultures and parts of the world. After coming to America immigrants lose the true sense of who they are and where they came from. Their culture and identity changes as they become more American. However, the American that they become is not the American that America could and should be comprised. Immigrants are becoming "assimilated Americanized" as stated in the passage. The problem with assimilated Americanization is that America has always been a country comprised of immigrants from different indigenous backgrounds giving it variety and making it diverse. It does not do America any justice to try to absorb and integrate into one homogeneous culture when the very basis and foundation of America stems from the variety and diversity of immigrants who came here from all over the world.

     The overall meaning of this passage is that America has failed at achieving assimilation. This is due to the fact that America is trying to create one homogeneous culture when the very foundation of our country is variety and diversity. Assimilated Americanization does not represent what and who America is. Our true identity is the composition of all the diverse cultures into our national identity, also referred to as "transnational." I chose this specific quote because when I think about America today I feel that there are more dominate cultures than others. The quote is a reminder that we all immigrated here to America. American culture and identity is not defined by one set of individuals. It is defined by all of our cultures. This passage is directly related to our class because as we continue to learn about and discuss the American Political system understanding the national identity of our country will be critical in the learning and understanding of the overall history of the United States of America.