Marie Sams
When I was
reading chapter five of our book, what stood out to me and was surprising was America's incredibly long trend of politicians having ties to land developers. Fail on my part, but I was not aware of the fact that land development was such a large component of
the history of the United States and that it was a huge way to make money early on
in history as well as today. The quote from Gottdeiner et al. stating, “land developers adopted the practice
of working closely with politicians and colonial authorities to promote the
development of select places” (111). This really made me think about the
connections that politicians have to other things besides their duties as
elected officials. Of course I was already aware of the fact that many
politicians are not only in office to do the right thing by the people or their
town, etc., I just never understood the lengthy history behind it. I
thought many times while reading the chapter, that if politicians could just
uphold the promises they made to the people when they were running for office,
the promises that got them elected, what an improved country we might live in. Instead, everyone is in bed with everyone else so the politicians end up just
trying to avoid pissing people off, and then their time is up and the next lucky individual
can waste another two or four years of their and our lives. I guess I’m just not
all that hopeful in the political process anymore.
A lot of the land developers mentioned above were considered entrepreneurs so that got me thinking about entrepreneurship and The
American Dream of today. As we know, the show Shark Tank has showcased new ideas from the average Joe so that wealthy entrepreneurs have the opportunity to invest in the entrepreneurs ideas. If the contestant walks away with a deal from one of the “Sharks,”
the contestants often say something along the lines of “I am living The
American Dream” or that they are “proof that the American Dream exists.” But what is the American Dream, anyway? What does that even mean? I can say
for certain that the idea doesn’t mean the same thing for every person. Not being
wealthy, I would assume that to wealthy individuals they believe they are living the dream, but keeping the dream alive means investing well and
keeping money in the family. For the other ninety-nine percent of us, the dream may look more
like owning our own home, or having a good job, or being able
to take a vacation every now and then. To others of us, it could simply mean the
freedom and opportunity to live a happy and healthy life. No one seems to hold money-hoarding rich
people accountable for being greedy, and they seem to be untouchable when they get
away with things the rest of us would never dream of. If America is the land of dreams, then what about new immigrants to
America? When they want to dream too, why do we vilify them?
If we aren’t of Native American ancestry, then every single one of us is an immigrant and most of our
families willingly came to live in America at one point or another. I think that the way we treat
immigrants, particularly those from Mexico, is pretty cruel. I realize that historically,
the way the United States has reacted to and treated immigrants coming from
many different countries has been pretty awful, but I would argue that the way we treat
our neighbors from Mexico is particularly harsh. I suppose my biggest problem
with it is the complete and utter lack of empathy we have toward immigrants
from Mexico. If any one of us were to trade lives with one of them and be as
close to the border of the land of opportunity as they are, we would probably
want to come to America, too. The other offensive argument I hear about
immigration is that “they should learn to speak English.” This is yet one more
arrogant American perspective, that everyone should be speaking English, because
heaven forbid we actually try to obtain any culture, and actually pay attention in our
mandatory high school Spanish class. Lastly, tearing immigrant families apart who
have minded their own business for years and who have contributed to America’s
economy is atrocious. The haters of Mexican immigrants should take a walk down
memory lane and see how their ancestors were treated when they first arrived
and try to have some compassion. I believe that everyone just wants to do
better than the generation before them, and I think that everyone should be
afforded that opportunity.
*I know how
gross this blog was, and I apologize. For what it’s worth, my brother and sister-in-law
had their very first baby today, so my blog came second (a close second) to hanging out with my one and only niece, Norah.
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