The United States was formed due to hardships in other countries around the globe. This nation has claimed itself to be the “melting pot” of the world. A nation that is built from a multitude of people from around the world. The Preamble of the document for which this very nation was centered around begins with the simple words, “We the people.”

Although the words may seem simplistic in nature, they carry a meaning that sometimes may seem to collapse due to the enormity of their purpose. For a country that has prided itself on being a more tolerant land, it has shown much to the contrary.

If there is any doubt about that, then to really see the case and point, travel to much of New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorado and Oklahoma. There you will see multiple Native American reservations where these once proud people have been reduced to such levels of poverty that it will make your very heart cry. Where is the equality for America’s first citizens? They are and have been a forgotten people, who have had much taken from them and left for dead. How is it that they were left out of the “American Dream”?

As always, politics plays a part in who will receive and who will not. When politicians such as Donald Trump make public comments such as, “Look at my African-American over here,” it speaks of how the issue of one’s skin color, nationality or creed still weighs heavily on how people are seen and/or treated in this “melting-pot.”

This country has tried to minimize its role in the slave trade for decades now. Slavery was a very real thing that existed here where families had lost their identities, mothers had lost their sons, daughters, husbands and fathers. A race of people treated and valued less than cattle.

The question begs to be asked, just how much is the worth and value of a human life? Does the color of their skin determine greater or less value, and if so, then how or why?

Mr. Trump saw someone who was different than his usual supporters. He pointed this gentleman out in a very public setting and all in one breath, set a tone of an old racism that has yet to die in this nation in where we say, “Liberty, freedom and justice for all.” The man who he had pointed to in the crowd was Mr. Gregory Cheadle. Mr. Cheadle should have been seen as another supporter and as a man with an identity instead of a man of color. Mr. Trump saying, “Look at my African-American over there,” sounds like ownership and disrespect.

All eyes might have been on Mr. Cheadle for that moment, but the spotlight is clearly on Mr. Trump in what is the true and deeper meaning of what he meant by saying those particular words.

This is a part of a greater problem here in this country. The Founding Fathers gave their lives and sacrificed so much for the dream and realization of a great nation. A nation that would be forged with the combination of people, nationality, ideas and dedication to a young and struggling concept. A concept where people can come together, live, love and protect an ideal that existed no where else within this world.

“Give us your tired, your poor, your huddle masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

It is my hope that these words were not meant to just become something to read upon a tablet of copper. What about those seem to have been not included in, “We the people”? How can we be a nation where there is liberty and justice for all when so many have been excluded because of their race or creed? The same race and creeds that have actually built the very foundation of this country. When will we begin to see a man or a woman as just that, instead of identifying them by the color of their skin or the country of their origin?