American Dream Part 2

A couple weeks ago, I posted a blog about what I thought the American Dream was. In it, I mentioned different reasons for immigrants coming to America, the circumstances that they had in their previous countries and also information about job security. Since then, I have learned much more about the American Dream and immigration. Overall, my ideas about the American Dream are relatively similar. However, some of the minor details about the American Dream have changed.

The big picture for the American Dream is the same. Immigrants come to the U.S. from all around the world with various different reasons. Some of these reasons could be income, fighting, racism etc. The immigrants come to America hoping that they can restart their lives and get a new job with a new chance. They know that the move to America, is better than just simply staying in their home country. When they get to the U.S., most of them find out that getting a high paying job is much harder than they originally though. Many will struggle and most of them will contemplate returning to their home country.

Like I noted at before, I learned a lot of information about minor details about the American Dream. Firstly, I found it very interesting that there are some many immigrants from Africa here in the U.S. Or at least I didn't know that there were so many of them. In addition, it was very interesting to compare the information I researched about Israel with the information that Jessica researched about Jewish immigrants. There were lots of comparisons, including the immigrants populating near other Jewish people. This is why there are sporadic concentrations of Jews through the country.

Overall, I find the American Dream and immigration very interesting. It is cool to find out how America got its diversity. Perhaps without all of the conflict, low income and other sources for immigration, America would not be as diverse as it is today. One thing that this unit got me thinking about is immigration in the future. I am curious about this subject because sooner than later, the U.S. will be overpopulated and everybody won't be able to immigrate to the U.S. due to lack of space.

The American Dream

What exactly is the American Dream? I think that there are many different interpretations to it. My interpretation is immigrants coming to America, to live the free and amazing life they are told occurs. The immigrants usually don't have the best circumstances in their country, and want to come to America to start their life over. They want to make their lives productive, and live a life full of pleasure.

The American Dream started during the late 19th century and early 20th century. America just finished its civil war, and everyone was starting to agree with each other more. Fighting occurred much less often, and everyone loved America. During this time, there were still many countries around the world that still didn't have their freedom. The citizens would be very mad at their country, and would want to move elsewhere. America was the place they went. Also, many soldiers or indentured servants from around the world would try to escape their country and find a way to come to America. Back then, it was much easier to enter the United States then it is now. The immigrants would have to pass a simple test to just become a citizen. They would have the same right that the whites have. I find this very interesting because many blacks who have lived in America, and helped out, couldn't even get their "freedom." One would think that it would be a little harder for any random immigrant to become a citizen of America.

One main theme that I have already hinted at, that describes the American Dream, is immigration. Immigration is a major thing for a country, because when new people come, they bring new ideas, techniques and methods with them. In addition, they also bring diversity. Immigration during that time period, was very different than immigration of today's. Today, we are constantly hearing about illegal immigrants. They are usually from Mexico or somewhere else near there. This was not nearly as common then.

Overall, the American Dream is a vision that people have of America. They think it is the best place on earth, where everybody gets an equal opportunity. They think it is a place to restart your life, without anybody accusing you of your previous actions. And because of these reasons, many people wanted, want and are going to want, to come to the United States to experience this.

Baltimore Orioles Vs. Everything Else

With the Baltimore Orioles, now being one of the best teams in baseball, it is very hard to concentrate on other things while they are playing.  The Orioles, who have now clinched playoff berth, havent been to the playoffs since 1997.  This means that during all of my life as a true baseball fan, my beloved Orioles have not had 1 winning season.  All throughout Baltimore, the Orioles are the talk of the town.
Baseball is a great to watch, whether at the game or on the couch.  However, one downside of being a huge baeball fan and a commited student is that the Orioles play almost every night.  Not wanting to miss one minute of action, I find myself planning my day around the Orioles.  I try and do as much homework in the day as I can, so I dont less to day at night.  When I get home after basketball practice, at around 6:30, I eat a quick dinner and get ready for the game.  I try to do the rest of my homework during the game, but usually end up finishing it at night after the game.  This turns out in me getting less sleep, which makes me even more tired the next day for school.  However, as the day goes on, all I can do is think about the Orioles and getting ready for their game that night. 
This upcoming weekend, is going to be jam packed for our school, Friends school, and the town of Baltimore.  This week is spirit week at Friends.  Spirit weeks always lead up to a huge schoolwide pep rally that will occur on this Friday.  On Saturday, the day starts out with scarlet and grey day, where many students come on campus and watch various sports events and hang out with each other.  On that night, the high school has its annual homecoming dance.  Although this is sure to be a lot of fun, there will most likely be a dilemma.  The Orioles are most likely going to be a AL wild card team.  This means they will play on Friday night.  And if they win this game, they will play the first game of the ALDS on the Saturday night.  Having watched almost every single game, in this amazing 162 game season, it would be almost impossible for me to miss a playoff game.  However, that would mean that I would also have to miss the homecoming dance.  This decision is a very difficult one.  I have yet to make my decision, and might end up being a last minute decision.
Every Sunday is an NFL Sunday to me.  This means that all I do, for the whole day, is watch football.  I am a very competitive fantasy football owner, that follows the score very closely.  In addition, I am a diehard Baltimore Ravens fan.  On this Sunday, the Ravens play against the Cheifs in Kansas City.  There game is schelduled for 1:00.  I am very excited for the Ravens to storm into Kansas City and get their fourth win.  However, once again, the Orioles have a game at the same time.  Although this situation is also bad, it is not as bad as on Saturday night.  I will be able to watch one of the games, and switch the channel back and forth while their is a break in the action.  The only question is, which game will I watch.
Overall, this weekend is going to be very fun, and have some very tough decisions that I need to make.  I know that I am going to have to miss something, but I don't want to miss anything.  Although sports is one of the most important things in my life, I have come to realize that it takes away time from homework and other social events.  Although I will most likely continue to be as passionate about sports in the future as I am right now, I know that there will be some things that I have to miss.

Religion in Present America

After doing a little research about curretn day religion, I learned that religion plays a much more important role than I would have thought.  I learend many interesting facts: some that backup my knowledge of religion, and some that present new material.  Although I previously knew that Christianity is the biggest religion in the U.S., I didn't know which sects are bigger.  I learned that teh Evangelical sect has the largest percent of the U.S. population, totaling in at 26.3%.  Catholicism comes in second with 23.9% of the U.S.  And protestantism is third with 18.1%.  Although only three sects of Christianity, these three cover just over 2/3 of the population.  Many people from the Evangelical sect come from the midwest, while many people from the Ctholic sect come from the northeast.

Coming from a family who has grown and takes pride in being Jewish, I found it interesting that there are really a very little amount in the U.S.  The most heavily concentrated places with Jews are in New York, New Jersey and Florida.  In addition, Maryland has the fourth highest percent in the U.S.  44 other states, didn't even have .1% of the population as Jewish.

One more interesting fact that I learned is that there are many people that are unaffiliated, or atheist.  Alsmost throughout the entire U.S., the percent of unaffiliated people is distributed evenly.  It is interesting to see that many people don't have religous views.

Jefferson and Hamilton

I agree with the statement “We [contemporary America] worship Jefferson, but we have become Hamilton’s America”.  Hamilton and Jefferson, two people with loads of importance during the late 1700’s and the early 19^th century, are crucial to America’s past history.  The two men set the foundation of what has now became of the United States.  Both men had some ideas and theories that they agreed on, but there were a large amount of ideas that only one of the two men agreed to.  One prominent theme that both men shared was their hatred towards one another.  This, is very important to know in order to fully understand what the statement means.

            “We [contemporary America] worship Jefferson”.  This part of the statement says that we, the United States, praise and admire Jefferson.  We like Jefferson for many reasons.  First, Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence. I know that this can be said in many instances, but without him, we would truly be different then we are today.  He made us into what we currently are.  This is the most significant reason that contemporary America worships Jefferson.  Another reason why some people worship Jefferson is because of his firm beliefs in agriculture.  Many people are starting to learn the effects of eating produce that is infected with pesticides and other hormones.  They are switching back to local farming and eating fresh food.  These two reasons, and a variety of others, are why we worship Jefferson.

 

“But we have become Hamilton’s America”.  This second half of the statement simply says that although we praise Jefferson, we abide and follow the rules of Hamilton.  Alexander Hamilton was man with self confidence.  He was proud of whom he was, and he has a strong passion in the work that he did.  Although his self confidence could be a positive thing and helped him accomplish some of his goals, it was usually a quality that ended up hurting him.  Hamilton would be conveyed as cocky or arrogant.  This would lead to many people disliking him and not respecting him. This is the reason why we do not worship Hamilton.  Although Hamilton may have been an arrogant man, he did come up with many good and interesting ideas.  Some of his good ideas are a central banking system and manufacturing.  This is why we have become Hamilton’s America.

 

So overall, we worship Jefferson.  He was a very smart man with good intentions on truly helping the United States develop into a unified country.  It wasn’t that his ideas and ways were bad, it just was that Hamilton’s ideas and ways were far superior. And this is why we are Hamilton’s America.