The United States of America is Worth Celebrating

America is the greatest nation that has ever existed. My generation needs to learn and appreciate that fact before we destroy it.

One of the most frustrating things I have noticed about my generation is the sense of entitlement so many people feel. Growing up in such affluence and abundance has made us feel like we deserve to live comfortably all the time. 

It is more enraging when I see people attacking the foundations of the systems that have supported our increasingly lavish lifestyles. So when I opened Instagram (my first mistake) on July 4th, I immediately was upset by how many people I saw disparaging the United States. When I heard someone ask “what are we even celebrating,” I decided to give some of the reasons I think America deserves our praise.  

A common phrase shouted by the left is that the United States was only built through the historical oppression of different groups. One of these groups is Native Americans. The common argument is that white settlers forced these native populations out through violent means and that because of this America is bad. While this is true, the people who make this argument are historically illiterate. No powerful empire was ever built because people politely asked their neighbors to submit to them. No nation has ever been established without bloodshed. Before Europeans arrived, tribes that inhabited the Americas fought amongst themselves quite often. There are many instances where Native Americans fought alongside new settlers to defeat rival tribes. The idea that these tribes coexisted peacefully before Europeans arrived is laughable.

Clearly, violence is wrong, but in a world where it was the norm, it is hard to say America is uniquely evil in how it treated the native populations in the New World. 

Instead of focusing on how we are the same as other societies, we should look at what America has done that is unique. What has the United States accomplished, good and bad, that sets it apart from the rest of the world and the rest of history? 

Something unique to America is its recognition of individual human rights. While this may be the norm in the Western world now, it was not at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. For a government to not only acknowledge these rights but to recognize that these were protected wholesale from government interference was completely unprecedented at the time. Most people worldwide still do not enjoy most of the freedoms we demand from our leaders. 

It is due to these human rights, enumerated in our founding documents, that allowed for the abolishment of slavery. While many leftists love to point out that we were one of the last industrial nations to abolish slavery, no nation would have done so without accepting that the values espoused by our founders were accurate. That every man is created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights. If those words were never written, I truly believe that there is a good chance Western civilization would continue the evil practice of slavery today. 

Great abolitionist and civil rights leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. understood this. But the social justice warriors that infest social media have no appreciation for these truths. They are like termites, eating away the framework of the most glorious mansion where we all live. 

 “There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution.” -Frederick Douglass

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Another thing that separates America from the rest of history is the amount of wealth it has acquired and how many people have been able to take part in it. Over 90 percent of the United States population lives above the international poverty line. The middle class did not exist before America created one. Most middle-class families in America have gotten even richer, moving into the newly established upper middle-class. No people have ever had so much and appreciated it so little. 

The left will argue this is because it has exploited smaller nations, but many of those same people live lifestyles that take advantage of this exploitation. Many of the technologies we all use every day passed through many areas of the world where even young children are exploited. Yet if you ask these people who rail against America to stop using products from these places, they go silent.

Instead of condemning one another, we should all try everyday to respect the rights of others. This includes where we spend our money and what companies we choose to support with our business. We have power, but only if we are united in our vision and purpose.

The United States is not a perfect nation. There is no such thing as a perfect nation. They are built by people and people are imperfect by our nature. What America has been since its founding is a beacon of hope for the whole world. The values enshrined in the Constitution are timeless and deserve our appreciation. Hopefully, my peers learn this before we tear down everything that made the greatest experiment in history so amazing.