America: Then and Now

There is no doubt that America has come a long way from its founding days. At
its core, America has always been the land of the free, a place for democracy to shine. In
many ways, the America of today is not the same as the America of the best. It is true we
have strayed from some of our founding ideologies, but I do believe that America is
better and more equal to today than it was in the past.
Our country was founded on the principle of freedom of religion, but even George
Washington believed that religion was fundamental to the success of government. So in
essence, while we were granted the freedom to believe what we want, the necessity of
religion was still implied. As schools popped up in the United States, religion was
generally a core learning point. However, over time, religious teaching waned in schools
to the point where religion is no longer allowed to be taught. Religious fervor in America
as a whole has declined since then with increasing numbers of non-believers. I believe
the country moved in this direction simply to protect one of the most fundamental rights
of mankind, the freedom of thought, which entails freedom of religion. We began to
realize that separation of church and state is necessary to protect religious freedom. As a
whole, I do not believe this is a bad thing. Morality in this day and age can be found
without a specific religion and the protection of free thought is an absolute necessity.
Another principle that we have strayed from is the idea that government is meant
to protect equal rights, not dole out equal things. We are all created equal in the eyes of
God and all have certain unalienable rights, so it makes sense that our founders believed
that the government must protect those rights. At the same time, by trying to make
everyone equal in every possible way, we are not protecting equal rights. Time has taken

us down a more liberal path, where government does intervene far more than the
founders originally intended it to. This is likely a misinterpretation of the governments
protection of equality. The government believes it has to act to make people more equal
without realizing that it is doing the opposite by acting as such. It is hard to say which is
better in this case as this fuels huge debates between people of different political
ideologies.
Overall, I do believe that America has evolved for the better. Yes, in some ways
we have strayed from our founding principles, but some of the most fundamental ones,
such as freedom of religion, have been strengthened. I think in general it is wrong to look
at Americas history as being so perfect; our country had many flaws that brought it to
where it was today. One of the biggest may be that though we claimed all men are created
equal, slavery was strong for many years after our countries founding. We have made
great strides towards equality since then. We are still not perfect, but we are marching
forward.