Elements of an American identity

What is the American dream? Condoleezza Rice, David M. Kennedy, and Joe Maddon shared their dreams, aspirations, and success to be American. They shared parts of their story. They believe that the American creed is related to family, community and freedom. The American creed is a system of beliefs about the American identity. Rice, Kennedy, and Maddon give us anecdotes about what has shaped their values. Rice values family, Maddon values community, and Kennedy values freedom as their American Creed.

To begin, Condolezza Rice had shared that she values family. In the document she starts explaining her family story of being black and growing up in Jim Crow south. Her family protected her from discrimination; her grandfather wanted the best for her by getting a higher education and leading her towards the education path. Rice is beyond grateful that her grandfather made her life easy as well as his family and future generations. In (source A) Rice says, “Faith matters. Family matters. Community matters.” This goes to show that family matters to her because without her grandfather she would not be standing where she is now. Condolezza Rice now Serves her country as secretary of state under the (Bushin admin) and became a professor of political science at Stanford all because her grandfather lent the gift of self improvement and highly supportive parents.

In the document Maddon values community. He believes that if kids interact together regardless of their skin color then they can be role models for parents in order to generate a community between family and kids. The reason why he values building a community is because his father and grandfather worked in the coal mine. They were not accepted in society and disconnected from their community due to being immigrants. In the document, Maddon explains his meaning of American; he says ¨to integrate into American society building trust community building¨, in other words, he wants the full participation of all people to come together academically or in general in order to shape a trustful community.

Finally in the document, Kennedy believes that there is a gap between reality and promises which is why he values freedom, where people can carve their own path. David Kennedy says, “The promise is not always fulfilled..¨, he says this due to his family history. His father dreamed of making a fortune in copper mining but did not succeed after the great depression, that's when Kennedy saw the reality and the promise that can not also be fulfilled. Although his grandfather had ´failed´ to complete his dream, Kennedy was the first to go college by carving his own path and searching for a good fortune.

In essence, we can see how diverse Americans understand the American creed by having different values like family, community and the Freedom to carve our own path. Every individual shared different anecdotes that shaped their beliefs and values of the American creed.