On Wednesday, April 6, 2014, I attended the Bernie Sanders rally in Philadelphia. I waited six hours in the cold and two hours for him to speak, but the experience was both eye opening and life changing. It made me come to the realization that I'm not proud to be an American.
Don't get me wrong, I love the place that I live. My sister and I never wanted for anything, I went to private schools my entire academic career, and I got a car at the age of 17. Both of my parents received a college education or higher, and I got into all of the colleges and universities to which I applied.
But, there are a lot of things wrong with America as a whole. Our education system is severely lacking. According to the NAEP, two out of three eighth-graders can’t read proficiently; Nearly two-thirds of eighth-graders scored below proficient in math; seventy-five percent of students are not proficient in civics; and nearly three out of four eighth- and 12th-grade students cannot write proficiently. Kids are getting passed on from grade to grade and not actually being educated. Colleges and Universities care more, it seems, about tuition checks than actual students. Standardized tests do not prepare kids for the real world - they teach kids how to memorize facts and spit them back out onto a Scantron sheet.
Our prisons and judicial system are in high need of reform. Mass incarceration has lead to America having the highest incarceration rates in the world. We have more people in prison per capita than even China. According to amnestyusa.org, the United States accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, but is responsible for nearly 22% of the world’s prison population with about 2 million people incarcerated. Approximately 1 in 3 African Americans are incarcerated according to recent trends.
As if that isn't enough, we are one of the worst countries when it comes to health care and paid leave. According to HealthPAC,t he United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system. In 2010, approximately 49.9 million Americans were without healthcare. An entire war is being raged on Planned Parenthood which provides affordable health care to women of all ages and all economic backgrounds. They provide birth control access, STD/STI services, and family planning. Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars in profit while the middle and lower classes struggle to receive the prescriptions that they need. Many Americans are also without basic health care.
Not enough is being done about keeping America clean and running smoothly, while trillions of dollars are being spent in warfare. We have more nukes than we could ever need, and we seem to freely send our soldiers into other countries where our presence is not needed or wanted.
All in all, America is a great place to live. We have beautiful national parks, a democracy, and a want to succeed. We have become a nation focused on showing how powerful we can be, instead of keeping roads paved, bridges in working order, and taking care of our citizens. If we can get back to our roots and remember what we were when we first became a nation - a nation build on equality and respect - then we can become a place that people are truly proud to call their home.
