SSH102/1839
Jason Chester
Professor Cottin
12/1/08
U.S. History
Response to Martin Luther King Speech
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
“My America”
My America is the home of the free and the brave. The land of opportunity where struggle is
inevitable, you have to push against the grain In order to maintain. Immigrants from all over come to this
Country for a better life. I am one of them. My family and I migrated in the early 80’s and had a pursuit
of happiness. The American way, we wanted to live the dream! A nice house, a good job, and a car are all
we looked forward for. Little did I know, or I’m sure many other immigrants did or didn’t know. That this
country America wasn’t fully responsible, but had a lot to do with the poverty, wars, and corruption that
partook in the very country, they were trying to get away from. It’s a moral dilemma from where I stand. I
love the American life, but I’m ashamed of the actions that were taken by my government to have this
life. Dr. king in his speech portrays everything in an honest truthful reality by saying “we must rapidly
begin a shift from a “thing-orientated” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and
computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of
racism, materialism and militarism are in capable of being conquered. “
Dr. King’s passionate speech spoke about the corruption of this capitalist nation against
communism. The fact that young black men were fighting a war for liberation, but yet in there in own
country they were segregated and discriminated against. Young white men who wouldn’t be seen in
public with black men were now sharing a battle field with them and dying together. The casualties of the
war are the poor! The innocent children, farmers, and of course majority of these soldiers were young
men. Who were fighting for their country! But as well hoping to get money for college and have an
education. The system of America is very strange. They started in the beginning by gaining independence
from the British. Then began to kill Native Americans to take over their land and expand for their own
gain. They called themselves the land of the free, but enslaved many Africans and continued to oppress
them even after they won the right to be free. America built up a strong army and adapted a capitalist
view of society. Where those in charge benefit from the majority of the profits and the rest will figure out
away to get by. They used Militarism to travel around the world with there army waging wars on poor
farmers and small countries to steal their resources. The Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Japan are just
to name of a few of the victims America has played a part in destroying.
When people in America are facing hard times and are unhappy with their situation. The
government knows that the best way to prevent them from gathering their ideas is to promote racism. The
more they hate each other the less they’ll band together. Materialism is the best. The world we live in is
one big open market for consumerism. The capitalist love this. They love to see people base their worth
on clothing and worldly possessions. The greed develops from within because of low self esteem and
people crush each other. They lie, cheat, and steal. Anything that can make them better than the other
man is there main focus. This is my America home of the free and the brave. This is the land of
opportunity where, it is not the idea to share and care for your fellow man, but to build and keep him
down so you can rise higher.