Thomas Paine's Vision Of America

Since the inception of of our great nation, we have been characterized as, “land of the free and the home of the brave,” as well as, “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Thomas Paine believed that America’s values are rivers of equality, liberty, self government, and economic freedom that flow into one titanic ocean of freedom. Furthermore, he believed that other cultures are simply spices that only add flavor to the stew of America. Nevertheless, our stew of American values is the prevalent flavor in the bowl. Though America is undoubtedly a country of countries, Paine’s vision of America was unquestionably inaccurate. It is evident that America is an immigrant nation. We were built to be a nation that encompasses all of the cultures of …show more content…
Our immigration in the past six years has made an uncordial disunion. Furthermore, radicalization in our society completely undermines Paine’s view that there is nothing to, “engender riots and tumults.” It can be said with a great amount of definiteness that the America that we read about in our history books is not the one that we read about in our newspapers. We have warped and distorted the true meaning behind what it is to be an American, much like how the treacherous wind breaks the innocent back of the bent tree. And like the tree, we are warped to such an extent that we ourselves do not know what we are looking at. As a result of the excruciating wounds we have created, by plunging and twisting the dagger of racism and beating ourselves with the bat of radicalism, we have twisted ourselves into a country that our forefathers would be reluctant to call America. However, it is possible to stitch the wounds we have created, it is possible to straighten the tree, it is possible to mend the bones broken. It is possible to return to the home our Founding Fathers used to call