Deceit and Divide

        Ever since I was a young kid I was always told, the United States of America is the best country. And I believed it. After all, the United States is the land of opportunity and freedom for all. At least, that's what we're told. But after living in this country for over 17 years I can tell you that's not entirely true. There may be opportunity and freedom in this country, but not for all. Our country seems some of the most divided it's ever been. The United States was built around the power being in the hands of the people. But as time goes on there seems to be more and more of a divide between the government and the individual. Other divides that have been very visible are a divide in wealth, and a divide in race. The United States is not the land of opportunity and freedom. The United States is a land of deceit and divide. 

        One case of divide that seems very prevalent today is the divide between the individual and the government. When this country was built, the power was made to be in the hands of people. Many of the founders were hesitant of a strong central government for fear it would take the power from the people. I believe that is exactly what has happened. Edward Snowden, an ex NSA employee and whistleblower, created a website that containing a lot of classified and declassified government documents about mass surveillance. An example from his website states, “A document reveals what Senator Ron Wyden called the ‘back-door searches loophole’. A classified update to FAA Section 702 showed the NSA secretly created a policy allowing analysts to ‘go through… communications and conduct warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans’ outside of any judicial process” (edwardsnowden.com). This quote shows that NSA created an update to a law that made it unnecessary for any warrants or any judicial process before searching a citizen's data. The NSA did this without giving the public any knowledge. I personally believe this is a direct violation of the 4th amendment, the right to privacy. If the government is not afraid to secretly break the fourth amendment, what is stopping them from breaking others. Barton Gellman is a journalist who worked with Snowden to expose the government. In an article about Gellman it states, “He notes that the 'mere creation of such a database, especially in secret, profoundly changed the balance of power between government and governed'”(dailymail). This quote shows that in today's world, the government holds way more power than the citizens in the United States. This makes it incredibly difficult for an individual to make a change when they notice a wrong in the government. Edward Snowden noticed the government doing something that he didn't like and came out against it. He is now forced to live in Russia and will be arrested the second he lands in America. It is clear in cases like Snowden, the government holds way more power than the citizens. 

        Along with a divide between the government and the individual, there is also a very big divide between wealth. The richest people hold the most power. They can afford to make more mistakes. According to The Washington post, “The 400 richest Americans now own more than the bottom 150 million” (The Washington Post). This means that 0.000001 percent of the population holds more wealth than 46 percent of the population. That is incredibly unbalanced. With that wealth comes a lot of power. That power is seen from the richest people today such as Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world who has a deal with the CIA through Amazon and is on the Pentagon Defense Advisory Board. Bezos was able to acquire this power in part because of his wealth. In The Great Gatsby, this power from wealth theme is very fitting. An example of this is Daisy and Tom. Towards the end of the book it shows, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed things up and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they made.” (The Great Gatsby) The word retreated means that they pull away or move. This shows the advantage the rich have. They can move from the problem,  afford the best lawyers if they make a legal mistake, and most other mistakes made can be solved with money. That makes a large divide between the wealthiest and the least wealthy. 

       Not only is there a divide between the wealthiest and least wealthy, there is also a divide in wealth between races. Because of systemic racism many minorities live in poorer communities. These communities have fewer opportunities and weaker education. According to an article from US news,  “Only 7 percent of poor kids and 13 percent of "near" poor kids (families of four living on an income of $22,000 to $44,000 a year) went to summer camp. Roughly 40 percent of non-poor kids – middle class and wealthy – attended summer camp” (usnews.com). This means that kids with less wealth have less learning opportunities such as camps, movies, and going to museums. These poorer communities, filled with mostly minorities, don’t receive the same education as wealthier kids. A worse education makes them less prepared for tasks than others meaning many don't end up getting out of the poor communities. The Great Gatsby shows this by stating, “In my younger . . . years my father gave me some advice . . . “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one . . . just remember that all the people in the world haven't had the advantages you've had”(The Great Gatsby). The word advantages in this line is mostly referring to the wealth that Nick's father had. The wealth allowed Nick to have many more opportunities to succeed. This divide between wealth and race related directly to my life. I live in a very wealthy community and there are not very many minorities that go to my school. 

        It is clear to me now that this country is not a land of freedom and opportunity for all, but only some. As time has carried on in my life I have learned that there is more deceit and divide in this country. It is clear that some people have many more opportunities and freedoms than others. The only way to progress into the future as a country is to remove the divide and to provide true equality. 

Works cited:

Snowden, Edward. “Revelations.” Courage Snowden, edwardsnowden.com/revelations/.

Sheets, Megan. “NSA's Tracking Program FAR More Extensive than Thought.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 26 May 2020, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8358769/NSAs-tracking-program-FAR-extensive-knew-thought.html.

Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.

The Hechington Report Contributer. “The Growing Achievement Gap.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 28 May 2018, www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2018-05-28/income-inequality-exacerbates-the-achievement-gap.

Ingraham, Christopher. “Analysis | Wealth Concentration Returning to 'Levels Last Seen during the Roaring Twenties,' According to New Research.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 Feb. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/.

Life in Quarentine

Journal 1

4/6/2020

Today we start online school with zoom. This means we will be doing our classes live with our teacher. So far I've had two and neither of my teachers knew what to do with the app. My neighborhood has been really quiet except on one day when it was very warm out there were people everywhere. When it's nice out I've been going for walks and when it's been cold I've been taking the car for drives just to get out of the house. Technology has been taking up most of my time. I can't imagine being quarantined without it. 

Journal 2

4/8/20

At first I thought the quarantine wasn't too bad but I realized that if the date we get off quarantine stays at April 30th, we are only half way done. That's starting to feel like a very long time and it is still possible for that date to get pushed back even more. I've been spending time with my parents and I've heard a lot about their work. My mom works for the park district as a preschool teacher but because of the quarantine her and all the other teachers and park district employees were fired because the park district can't pay them. My dad works at an artificial knee and hip distributor and they got a loan from the government in order to keep paying their employees. All of their employees will be making 25% less than before quarantine. As long as my dad's business uses at least 75% of the loan to pay employees, the loan will be forgiven. From a business and employees perspective this opportunity from the government is very good however it could have consequences in the future. 

Journal 3

4/9/2020

After having a few days with the zoom app I'm starting to like it more. The class days are a lot shorter than before and I get to sleep until 11 every day. If we do go back to school this year it's going to be a very rough adjustment. Talking with my dad I learned that many companies that didn't get loans fired their employees so they could receive unemployment. That is the main reasoning for the employment rate skyrocketing. I'm very lucky my family is fortunate enough to be able to afford what we need through savings. I know a lot of people that live paycheck to paycheck are really struggling during these times. Many more people will begin to struggle if this quarantine lasts longer.


Journal 4

4/12/29

There's a weird feeling with time lately. Everything feels like the time between Christmas and New Years. The days are starting to mend together. After being home all the time with little responsibility I've been losing track of the days. Every day feels like a Sunday. I've been doing absolutely nothing. At first I was finding different things to keep myself busy but now that I've done everything I've really just been on my phone and using a lot of social media. 

Journal 5

4/15/20

At first I was spending a lot of time with my family but as the time went on I got more and more irritable so I've been spending more time alone. We've been on quarantine for over a month and there are no signs of it ending any time soon. I'm really hoping that this summer isn't affected because this is my last year of football for the rest of my life. This whole offseason my team has been working really hard and we have a chance to be really good this year but we really need the summer to work on our team chemistry and get everything together. 

Journal 6

4/17/20

Today governor Pritzker is expected to announce that schools are going to be cancelled for the rest of the year. This means that in total the coronavirus took away a full quarter of the school year. I'm very happy I'm not a senior but I feel bad for those that are gonna lose their final seasons, prom, and graduation. Also missing out in seeing all the people at school that they don't see elsewhere. The weather has been really bad lately with snow coming over night so going outside has not been as enjoyable. I think everyone is slowly losing their minds being trapped inside.  



Journal 7

4/20/20

I'm getting very used to being inside all the time. I've started cooking more to pass time. I helped my dad cook steaks and I've made some brownies too. My screen time on my phone and other electronics has skyrocketed up because there's not much else to pass the time. I can't imagine what quarantine would look like 30 years ago before the boom in electronics. I think many people would have a harder time following the guidelines and many more people would be affected by the virus. Me and my mom are both fine with staying home but my dad is starting to lose his mind a little bit because he's usually not home too much. 

Journal 8

4/22/20

I'm losing a lot of motivation for working out. Before quarantine I was working out super hard to prepare for football but it's a lot easier when you have your team supporting you. I'm really nervous my last football season will be affected by the virus. I've heard rumors that if the football summer camp gets cancelled we might have 3 a days instead if 2 a days. My whole rugby season was cancelled and I wasn't able to go to our tournament at Kansas university. That would have been a special trip because my dad went to college their and it would have been really cool to play there. 

Journal 9

4/24/20

I've been trying to fill my time with different activities. My mom taught me how to knit so I've been spending a lot of time knitting. It's actually very relaxing and pretty time consuming so I plan on spending a lot of time on it. Hopefully I'll make good progress on my blanket by the end of all of this. The stay at home order has been extended through May here in Illinois. I was expecting it and I'm expecting it to last longer than May as well. Many people I know were not expecting this which I think is going to make it a lot harder for them to stay home. Everything about this feels like it's straight out of a history book. 

The Truth of our Democracy

        For my junior theme I explored the question of why trust in government has decreased in recent years. Many of the sources I reviewed were declassified files released by the U.S. government. These files showed the depth of the mistreatment of citizens. I also looked at the separation of treatment towards different groups of people based on race. Although this mistreatment has occurred for many years, the reason the decrease in trust is recent is because of the usage of internet and the mass amount of information available. 

        Throughout my research I learned a lot about the depth of the cruelty of our government. After this project my personal trust in the government has definitely decreased. Some surprising information I learned is about the government dosing unknowing citizens with LSD and the sterilization of many unknowing Native American women. I also read about Edward Snowden, who released lots of information about the NSA. This information includes their ability to track almost any citizen through the location services on cellular phones and the ability to intercept emails and phone calls from almost all citizens. This information really shocked me and made me feel as though I have little to no privacy in almost all aspects of my life. In the end this turned out to be a much deeper topic than I expected which has a lot more information for me to learn about. I believe the government should be transparent to their citizens in order to hold the integrity of a true democracy. 

Race in America

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a novel that captures the view of America from the perspective of a person that has witnessed some of the darkest things the country has to offer. Throughout the book, Coates questions many aspects of society. One aspect of society that heavily affects the lives of Coates and many of his peers is race. He explains his perspective on race and how it has changed his life and divided the country. In Coates words, “Race is the child of racism, not the father.” (7) Which means without racism there would be no reason for race to have any effect in today's society.

        The neighborhoods I have grown up in are not very diverse at all, according to illinoisreportcard.com, New Trier Highschool is only 0.6% African American. Having grown up in a very sheltered, not diverse area, many of the topics discussed by Coates are very foreign to me. Between the World and Me really showed me the gravity of racism in America. Although it seems we have come far in the fight on racism. We have only skimmed the surface. It has been scratched deep into the surface of the country and will take a lot to be removed. Coates states, “You cannot forget how ... they transfigured our very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold” (71). This quote is an example of how racism is rooted in the base of our country. Changing laws won't change the mindsets set hundreds of years ago. It will take a very deep change in the base of our country in order for a true change. Before reading this book I had believed that great progress was made in helping resolve racism. However, it is now clear to see that based on where I have grown up, the true nature of racism has been hidden from me. 

        There is no way to fight racism without changing the effects it has on law enforcement and other government agencies. Systemic racism is one of the main reasons racism still affects so many. It is clear to see the effects of systemic racism just from looking at where I live. The Northshore is one of the wealthiest communities in the state of Illinois and it has one of the smallest African American populations. This is due to many different reasons. According to USA Today, “The median annual income among black households in the United States is just $36,651, about $24,000 shy of the median income among white households.” There is a very large difference in the amount of money made per black household compared to white households. This leads to more separation because African American families can't afford houses in as nice of neighborhoods. The less healthy neighborhoods they can afford to live in don't have the best education and have a lot more violence and crime. The poor schools and rough neighborhoods lead to poorer education and lower chances of getting higher paying jobs. Thus a cycle is created that keeps the systematic racism in place.

        Another part of systematic racism that affects the black community is law enforcement. In Between the World and Me, Coates shares multiple instances wear police brutality has caused major pain and even death to those he knows. More police shootings occur weekly. Amnestyusa.org brought attention to the case of Oscar Grant. An unarmed African American man that was brutally killed in the street by police officers. At this point it is basically common knowledge that African Americans face more police brutality than other races, and that is not a coincidence. According to the Chicago Tribune, in Chicago, “About four out of every five people shot by police were African-American males.” This statistic is proof that the African American community is targeted much more than other ethnic groups. Trust between the black population and police and other government agencies is severed. Without trust people are much less likely to report crimes to the police and try and get help from the government for issues in the community leading to even further separation. 

        Although I had thought lots of progress was made to fight racism, Coates showed me that racism still thrives in America today. The only way to solve systemic racism is to break down the very basics of the country and attack racism at the source. This includes providing equal education to all and finally removing the segregation that has formed due to the imaginary idea of “Race”. 

Values of the National Football League

As of late the values of the National Football League have shifted their attention on to protecting the safety of players, specifically the quarterback. However, many of the players and fans believe that these new rules are taking away from the game. One example of a play called for roughing the passer happened on Sunday October 6th in the Dallas- Greenbay game. Dak Prescott was rolling out of the pocket and one of the defender lightly hit his head with his had not even hard enough to affect Dak. This play was flagged as roughing the passer and 15 yards were added to the end of the play even after Dak escaped unscathed and turned the run into a first down. According to yahoo sports, plays like this are a very big problem with the game of football because they are recurring and can dramatically change the outcome of a game. Defenders are having even more trouble then before because even they don't know what is legal or illegal. It seems that every week there are more bad calls and I personally believe they should be changed in order to bring back the rough game we love. Safety is important but at this point it is just impossible to play defense.

WELCOME

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