American Creed

Shadlynn Summers

May 14, 2018

English, per. 6

American Creed Paper

“America is a nation that was created to thrive in greatness, from the day it was deemed a country they had one goal, to give freedom to those who don’t have it. People from Europe founded America because they wanted to say what they wanted, and believe what they wanted. That is the image that America has lived up to. To this day, people from all around the world come to America to be a part of that image, and to give a better life to their families, for themselves, to live the American dream.“

That is what I imagined America to be like in the beginning of my senior year. It was one of our first papers that we wrote. However, our paper was mainly about what we envisioned America to be like, rather than actually paying attention to what the people in the film were actually talking about. In the end of the year, we watched the film again. Hearing their perspectives on the topic the second time affected the opinions I had at the beginning of the year.

In the American Creed film, Terrence Davenport talked about struggle and unity. His grandfather worked the cotton fields when he was a kid, and he spent his entire life on those fields. When his grandfather eventually died, there was nothing to his name. Terrence stated that he was surprised about how his grandfather spent his entire life taking care of the fields, and he has nothing to show for it. In the film he stated, “With struggle comes ingenuity.” That statement changed my perspective of things, it made me start to notice that those who struggle tend to be more patriotic, appreciative, and more aware of the world’s problems. People who are more wealthy tend to have higher expectations for things, and they don’t appreciate the little things as much.

When people lead different lives, they have different views. And when those views clash, they lead to conflict. Eventually that conflict manifests until it is uncontrollable. Terrence strongly believed in unity for all. He disagreed with the fact that the Democrats and Republicans had to fight in order to get their way. In the film, he stated, “Our fight is what should ignite our unionship. To be American is about everyone, not just you." When he stated this, what he meant was, instead of focusing on the differences in our beliefs, we should focus on our similarities,our struggles, and our histories. That should be enough to unite Americans together. That day on September 11, 2001, we were all united. We were not Democrats or Republicans, we were Americans. We all felt the same pain that day, we all had our losses. We may have a different solution to the problem; however, we need to remember that even with different points of views, we have the same enemy. We need to unite together as Americans and solve the problem together, rather than fight each other on how to solve the problem.