American Creed Argument

We Need to Get Connected With Each Other

In the PBS documentary American Creed, speakers in the film share how we are disconnected from each other and how we don’t know how to converse with each other anymore. In a follow-up interview for the film on PBS station WSRE with business leader Terrence Davenport and former Marine Tegan Griffin, Griffith says, “We as humans are becoming disconnected from each other.” This says something about how we are so wrapped up in other things that we don’t even realize that it is damaging our society. Griffith points out that we need to slow down and put forth more effort in conversations we have with each other. If we don’t start putting forth the effort now we are going to end up not being able to converse with each other. In this same WSRE interview, Davenport says, “We can’t set out to be what we want to be without each other.” If one person doesn’t set out to be what they want to be they are potentially making it harder or impossible for another person to set out to be what they want to be.

In the video Griffith argues, “We are seperated and disconnected because of social media, politics, religion, etc. There isn’t one single reason.” We are are so caught up in what makes each of us individuals and not what makes us a group. Griffith also says, “We don’t know or can’t have conversations because we are too worried about what side we are on, Democrats or Republicans, and we are too busy with what we think.” She is initially saying that if you don’t have the same views as someone else, then you don’t really talk to that person. Davenport says, “We have to teach each other different skills that we can put forth to make this country a whole again.” He’s saying that we need to find out what we are good at and help others find out what they are good at to make it so we can all work together in making it a better place to live.

When we didn’t have smart phones and social media, we were forced to talk to each other face to face. We didn’t have a choice. If you wanted to talk to your friends you had to go find them and talk to them If you wanted to talk to someone about something you are selling, you had to actually go out and talk to people and interact. Now you just send a text to a friend or make a post on Facebook. We were once unable to talk to each other. The struggling, poor people didn’t connect with the rich. We were in our groups and doing what we needed to do to support ourselves and the others did the same. Davenport says “We need to create a path for the people who come behind us. We need to empower them with skills that will help them be powerful.” We need to better others in order to better ourselves, so that we can better the United States.

Davenport uses a garment to represent the US and says, “We’ve got to pay attention to any rip or tear in the garment and fix it before it becomes a huge, unfixable, hole.” He is initially saying that you need to pay attention to the problems in the society so that we don’t let it get to big and out of hand. Griffith says, “We need to raise up the people who care and are concerned about our country to help others.” If we keep bringing people up who don’t want to help the country and only want to help themselves then we are going to keep going down. If we want to go up we need to find people who actually care about the country and want to make a difference. Davenport quotes Martin Luther King in the interview, saying, “We’re all woven together in a single garment of destiny.” If we want our country to be great and to create a destiny for all of us then we need to work together as one and stop ruining the “garment.”

I believe that we should stop creating apps that help us communicate with each other over social media and not face to face. It would help us as a connect better as a country and not be separated by our beliefs and our races. We need to encourage the younger generations to start talking to each other and meeting up with each other in person and not on social media or chat groups. It is important that we know who we are and how we all connect and fit together in this country. If we start to speak with each other about our beliefs, we can come to a realization that there are some of us that work great together and the others help us to figure out the tears in our society.