Home of the Free

Jaweed Kaleem, in his article “In the ‘land of the free’, are you free to sit out the national anthem?” explains the controversy around the subject of not partaking in the national anthem, and why it’s not solemnly based on the assumption that the individual is disregarding the country or the people that protect it but rather an act of protest towards the prejudice and inequality that the black community continues to face. Kaleem supports his explanation by bringing up esteemed athletes such as Colin Kaepernick and renowned professors like Peter Dreier who are educated on the matter, and continuously advocate for it whether it’s using their social media platforms like Kaepernick or frequently writing articles on sports politics like Dreier.

Background and Audience Relevance: Everyone including newborn babies uses Plastic bottles. According to Petz. S (2009, October 15) Science, Clean Water “Out of the 50 billion bottles of water being bought each year, 80% end up in a landfill, even though recycling programs exist. ”. Which takes an impact to the plastic trash that travels to what is now a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. We are the reason for the global warning, leak of chemicals in our food and water supplies. Yes, water bottles do make it easier for us to carry around but what we don’t know if that our pocket is paying the price of pollution leading to health issues.

America, “The Land of the Free,” or so I thought. As an American, I have always believed that everyone has a right to free speech, free thinking, and a life without racism. I thought that I was lucky to be growing up in this century, where slavery had been abolished almost completely and racism on a steady decline. I was beyond proud of all of the accomplishments that our country had made in the past thousands of years; that was until I read “Whither Now and Why,” by W.E.B DuBois. DuBois was a Negro man, who in this passage described that although Negroes would soon be lawfully equal, they would never be socially or independently equal and forced to assimilate to White American culture (DuBois, W.E.B., 135). DuBois predicted that black identity would be lost if his kind were forced to assimilate to White culture, and compared this assimilation to “racial suicide” (DuBois, W.E.B., 135) Through this passage, DuBois was not only able to describe “racial suicide” of his culture but helped to open my eyes and see that assimilation is still a huge problem in America today.

By welcoming the diverse languages and religions of the world, America is considered a melting pot of both cultural and ethnic identities. In the essay about bilingualism “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa she writes, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (172). Anzaldúa believes that her ethnicity and language are what make her who she is. Therefore, by insulting her language, she is insulted as well. Her identity is “twin skin” with how she speaks. Linguistic identity is the ability for a person to speak freely in any language and ultimately their identity is shown through shared language. The things that define a person are their actions, their behavior, the way they walk, and the way they talk. A person’s culture has a heavy influence on their identity throughout their lives. To disrespect an important part of their culture, their language, is to disrespect the person on an extremely interpersonal level. The person would be, therefore, discouraged from speaking their native language. Anzaldúa shows that her language constitutes who she is; it binds her to the existence of her identity therefore a person’s language defines his/her identity.

They call America “The land of the Free,” yet its own people experience obstructions to their freedom. Politicians receive the people’s votes and the people’s money, and then they rob these people of their rights. This election is the American citizen’s opportunity to fight. It is his opportunity to fight for himself and his fellow citizens, to fight for justice, to fight for equality, to fight for deliverance from poverty. Now is the time for the American to demand protection from guns and to require that government support the family in poverty. The American politicians must learn to open their arms to those in need. Many politicians have joined the race for president, but they must have the qualifications and the creativity

You can’t walk across a college campus, past an office building, or through a park without seeing one, two, or ten empty bottles. Many are plastic water bottles. Trash bins overflow them. Those water bottles are a problem. Why? Because only one out of five bottles actually makes it to a recycling bin. Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose and if they are incinerated, toxic byproducts, such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals, are releasing into the atmosphere. The rest are littered on our streets or over filing our landfills. They degrade our landscape and damage our environment. In addition the plastic water bottles are not biodegradable that is, they don’t decay. They remain as trash a hundreds of years.

We can’t only blame the consumers for the things occurring in our world. If less plastic packaging were used and more paper or glass packaging were used it would really benefit the world. Looking at plastic water bottles many say that they are recycled or reusable but they aren’t always

Michael Moore, author of the essay Idiot Nation, is as anti-Republican as they come and not at all afraid to express his beliefs with overflowing passion. Over the past 20 years, both Moore’s popularity and notoriety have boomed to new heights as a film maker, writer, and social critic. From winning Oscars and Academy Awards for his films and documentaries to co-writing 8 renowned books, Moore has not stopped producing ways of expressing his thoughts on the government and society to the general public. In Idiot Nation, Moore does an excellent job getting the point across that America is really a nation of idiots. This may sound presumptuous and ignorant, but Moore provides very convincing

Although today the United States are known for being the “Land of the Free”, it was not always so easy to feel the liberty that is supposed to be a god given right. As more people migrated to and throughout the USA, it become increasingly clear that not everyone was welcome. Stereotypes and prejudice actions became typical for settlers to become involved in and made life hard for many ethnic immigrants throughout the United States. For those peoples from Ireland along with African Americans and the native people, life was extremely difficult to live when those settlers around did not except them beyond the steroetypes placed over their heads. Known for being “less than” and savages, these people had to work harder than their peers to make

The implement of recycling programs can cut down the curbside waste that is produced by every household in the world. “Recycling policies are becoming increasingly prominent generally, and plastic water bottle recycling is at the forefront of many recycling policy initiatives”. (Viscusi, Huber, Bell, 2011, pg 1) There are even some states within the United States that increase the cost of water or soda in bottles. This is their way of putting a deposit on the bottle so that it will prompt the person buying the bottle to recycle it and at that point obtain their deposit back.

Americans buy at least nine billion of plastic water bottle every year; this translates to millions of dollars spent on a commodity that is readily available in their homes (Lewis, page 1). The only reason that can justify this senseless behaviour is that Americans have been duped by the assertions of advertisers and marketers. According to Gleick, a good advertiser has the ability to make us buy something we may not need. These corporations spend many funds to denigrate public water supplies while flaunting their products.

America: land of the free, and home of the brave. People have often traveled long and far to live in a safe, and esteemed environment, when in reality the core values of America change as time goes by. Even though Americans often value individualism, patriotism, nationalism, and individual liberty, history has proven otherwise. Wars, social norms, rights restrictions, expectations and peer pressure have gotten in the way of the values that many believed highlighted America. The saying, ‘history repeats itself’ has haunted the future of America greatly. As the years go by, individual freedom is minimized, and citizens are slowly conned into the conformist society that many live in today. The definition of success in itself has changed for the worse; changing from knowledge and efficiency to materialism and wealth. Even though many have become prominent victims of conformity and have been deprived of their individual rights in the past, the American value of patriotism, individual liberty and individualism should stand strong in the hearts of Americans now and in the near future.

are non-recyclable and end up in landfills. More than 80 percent of recyclable plastic bottles end

America is often referred as the “the land of the free.” It’s a nation of diversity because of the open-door policy that has been implanted. The open-door policy accepts any foreigner that is pursuing the American Dream. Every year, thousands of immigrants, illegal and legal, come to the United States. Many immigrants have different reasons why they feel the need to leave their country behind and start a new life elsewhere. Those reasons may be: fleeing from a war, bettering their perspectives, living in a better environment, or simply deciding that you like the concept of the American Dream. For instance, in the 1990’s my father, grandfather and uncles decided enough was enough as thousands of other Shia’s did. Saddam Hussein started bombing Shia villages, particularly Najaf and Karbala. It was horrific. Men, women, children, and elderly people were killed. Not by the hundreds but by the thousands. My family decided to uprise with the other families against Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein didn’t not take kindly to the up rise. They had no other choice but to flee. But not everyone was as lucky as they were. Many people believe that America is the best place to start over because they are guaranteed more freedom, benefits, and protection, just as did my parents.

“One of the biggest challenges facing the bottled water industry is how to respond to the environmental claims levelled against it” (Grocer). Every time someone throws a bottle away, they have taken up more space in a landfill for the next four hundred fifty to one thousand years. Besides the long decomposition rate, water bottles are the cause of several more environmental issues. Overfilling landfills, health hazards caused by refilling, and the economic stresses due to the constant and inconvenient repurchasing are just a few of the negatives water bottles have on us. These plastic pollutants are doing more harm to both the environment and their users than good.