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• 2020-09-09

  Is America Currently Living Up to Its Core Values?

  America has not lived up to one of their main core values which is Equality. Equality is a core value that came from the Declaration of Independence. The reason could be because another American core value, Liberty, interferes. Liberty also came from the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Did you know a few days prior to October 1, 2017, hotel staff at Mandalay Bay unsuspiciously escorted over 20 luggage of guns and ammunition to Steven Paddock’s hotel room before he unleashed thousands of rounds of ammunition into a large crowd, killing 60 and injuring 869. The whole entire massacre occurred before the police even thought of reacting! However just a few months before, on May 19, 2017, officers kill an unarmed black man in Las Vegas. America has not lived up to one of their main core values which is Equality due to the indefinite racism, health care inequality, and social class inequality. Racism is a major issue that goes against the American value of equality. A man in Utah fired multiple rounds at a police officer using an AR-15. After multiple shots, the police officer decided not to return fire to keep the situation as peaceful as possible. Breona Taylor’s boyfriend, Mr. Walker fired back since the pounding on the door made him believe there were intruders. The police returned with a mini massacre. According to the LA Times, “An unarmed black man lying on the ground was repeatedly tasered by a police officer. Then he turned over and was put in what looked like a chokehold. He lost consciousness. After being rushed to the hospital, he was pronounced dead.” This quote shows a perfect example of racism and how it proves that everybody isn’t treated equally. The same party, (the cops) treated two parties, (Breanna & Utah man) completely differently in life-threatening situations. The white man got walked into the police car after his arrest, as a woman and her partner got killed via a violent rampage for self-defense. Both parties fired at officers, one intentionally and one in self-defense. The white man who tried to hurt the officers with malicious intent got to live while the innocent civilians who were only trying to prevent a break-in from getting killed. The wealth and health care cap creates inequality among the different social classes in America. People in the middle class tend to suffer the most from wealth and health care inequality since they don’t receive benefits like the lower class do and they can’t afford health care as the higher class can. The APA monitor states that “The Shorter Lives, Poorer Health report found that just about all Americans — from birth to age 75, with low incomes and high, with or without health insurance, with or without college educations — are worse off than people in other wealthy countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan and most of Western Europe.” The quote explains how people in wealth are more fortunate than those otherwise. It explains no matter how successful or how hard someone tries to work their way up from the lower or middle class, they will always be close to the edge of the clip waiting to make the wrong move and fall off. People in the low class gets a little but not enough help from the government through benefits. The rich can afford to pay off any inconvenience that may be introduced into their lives such as hospital bills or healthcare fees. The rich get richer and the poor stay poor, resulting in the middle class paying the price. Americans violate their core values of equality due to systematic racism and social class gaps. Equality is crucial, especially in America since it’s apparently “The land of the Free” but the actions of Americans beg to differ. Racism is only considered a problem for certain people and isn’t taken as seriously as it should. People lose their lives over the color of their skin, religion, or beliefs. It is time to take action and disrupt racism as a whole to put an end to it. Everyone should be treated with respect regardless of and move on with their lives. People pay a ton of taxes but somehow our government can’t take the homeless people off our streets nor employe current citizens but want to complain about immigrants attempting to enter and live a better life by working. The government should handle finances more responsibly to the point where all citizens are taken care of and racism should be banned to the point where people don’t feel marginalized or unsafe anywhere in America.