The Declaration of Independence grants "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" to all citizens. Since 1776, America has come a long way and has become more of a free country than it was at the time. There is more equality among races and genders, and we now have the power to express how we feel. The founding fathers wanted to create a country where citizens had freedom and equality. But at the time, only free white men where considered citizens. Now, almost anyone can become a US citizen. However, even though we have improved greatly since the Declaration of Independence was written, America is still not completely living up to the ideals of the document.
Liberty is the being free without your race, gender, or beliefs getting in the way of that freedom. The Declaration of Independence grants liberty, equality, and freedom to all but I believe that we have not yet achieved freedom, and factors like race act as an obstacle in achieving this complete freedom. We claim to be a country where everyone is free, yet race plays a role the judicial system. There have been several cases where innocent black men have been killed by police officers, including Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, and Kimani Gray. These were innocent black men who were accused of fake crimes. At the end, the police officers were not even convicted. Racism is first showed where the police officers attack these innocent people. They did it because they were African Americans. Secondly, when the cases were taken to court, the police officers ended up not getting convicted and getting all charges dropped against them. Justice was not given to the African Americans and their families The judicial system chose to take the side of the white police officers. Liberty was given to the officers, not the African Americans who were killed. When the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence they wanted justice to be blind and that everyone would be equal under the law. Although conditions have improved since the formation of the United States of America, racial inequality is still a struggle in this country. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury." The founding fathers constantly stated that fair trials should be given to everyone, but that still seems to be a goal that has not been reached, which has been shown through the unfair trials of the innocent African American's listed above. Even though social equality is still an issue in the United States, the democratic system of the United States has met the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. The founding fathers wanted a government where the people had equal representation in government and the leader was not all powerful. The Declaration of Independence states that the king " refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only." They didn't want a tyrant to rule the states. We now have Congress, which represents the people, and a system of checks and balances to ensure that one branch of government does not become too powerful. I believe that our government system has met the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. We have a government that is not tyrannical and where everybody has the right to vote and chose a leader. Our government is not corrupt. We have the right to express ourselves and our beliefs. All of these rights were what the founding fathers described in the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence states that citizens have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have progressed greatly as a country. Although liberty and equality among all people is still an issue, we have met the ideals of some of the Declaration of Independence. We have a government that is not all powerful, a government where people have a say in how they are ruled, and a government of the people. The United States government has become what the founding fathers wanted; a government that would treat the people properly. Some ideals of the Declaration of Independence have been met, but equality is still a very big and important matter. Hopefully in the future, liberty can be something every individual in the America can experience. -Simran Gill Sources Vozick-Levinson, S. (2014, December 4). Black Lives Matter: 11 Racist Police Killings With No Justice Served. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/black-lives-matter-11-racist-police-killings-with-no-justice-served-20141204 Urofsky, B. M. (2001, November). U.S. GOVERNMENT Introduction to the U.S. System Democracy Papers. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from https://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/docs/demopaper/dmpaper1.html |
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