Is This the Country the Founding Fathers Envisioned?
By Emma Bunyea
(Advisor’s Note: One month removed from the elections and a month and half away from Inauguration, Emma Bunyea has questions about what makes America great).
Was America great in the beginning?
I ask only because I have questions. Did the Founding Fathers ever envision Americans fighting back against their leaders and saying no? Did the Founders envision people unafraid of power? Did they expect to be challenged, ever? Did they envision that even children could move mountains and fight injustices? Did they envision people storming the streets of New York to fight for women’s rights? Did they envision millions of people parading for their right to love whomever they choose to love? Did they envision that people in this country would support candidates that did not look like them?
Let’s be honest about back in the day. We can begin by taking the Founding Fathers off their pedestals. We can still admire their accomplishments, while acknowledging their shortcomings. They were not diverse. They were elitist. They did not expand their social circles. Their hubris prevented them from empathizing (or even sympathizing) with their fellow citizens from lower social classes. They imposed their will on the lower classes whenever they could. Their American Dream was not inclusive.
America was founded on slave labor. Most of the Founding Fathers owned slaves. And those who didn’t were clearly, to some degree, tolerant of it. Consider that slavery wasn’t “abolished” until 1865, almost almost 100 years after we became a nation. All of the Founders were long deceased by the time Blacks were not considered property or potential property. Even when slavery was “abolished” by law, its residue endured – Jim Crow laws for a century, mass incarceration and police brutality for more than 100 years. When the colonists were declaring independence, they did not mean independence for all Americans.
America was founded on bigotry. People of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community … we have all had to fight for our rights, over and over again.. At the great March on Washington, August 28, 1963, 250,000 people demanded that Black people have the freedom and the rights they were promised one hundred years earlier. For that time it was the largest movement in American history. Six decades earlier, more than 40,000 comrades and allies stormed the streets of New York City in 1915 so that women could vote.
Today I see my peers and those around me chant “Black Lives Matter.” In 2017, 470,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. for women’s rights. For my rights. One of the largest protests in American history was on April 25, 1993, for LGBTQ+ rights, at which it was estimated one million people marched in Washington DC. I see these movements emerging from fear of losing basic human rights. The last four years have taught us that tens of millions of Americans want a nation run by white males, for the benefit of while males. They should study the protests of 1915, 1963, 1993, 2017 and dozens of others throughout history, showing that Americans who love this country are unafraid of change. These protesters believe that change is necessary for growth.
When the Founding Fathers wrote that “all men are created equal” … I wish they meant it. I would like to imagine they envisioned hope and love for everyone. I wish they didn’t mean just men like them. I wish they meant that young women like myself were granted rights. I wish they would have valued me as a child for who I could become and the things I could do, rather than just the mother I could become. I wish they valued my brain and my character instead of the gender I identify with. I wish they encouraged me to create instead of just procreate. I wish that no one had to fight for the basic human right of living the life they want to live. I wish the Founders had envisioned that.
Perhaps we can all agree that the Founders merely created a skeleton. It is people like you and me that create heart and soul. America just might be great for all.
By Emma Bunyea
(Advisor’s Note: One month removed from the elections and a month and half away from Inauguration, Emma Bunyea has questions about what makes America great).
Was America great in the beginning?
I ask only because I have questions. Did the Founding Fathers ever envision Americans fighting back against their leaders and saying no? Did the Founders envision people unafraid of power? Did they expect to be challenged, ever? Did they envision that even children could move mountains and fight injustices? Did they envision people storming the streets of New York to fight for women’s rights? Did they envision millions of people parading for their right to love whomever they choose to love? Did they envision that people in this country would support candidates that did not look like them?
Let’s be honest about back in the day. We can begin by taking the Founding Fathers off their pedestals. We can still admire their accomplishments, while acknowledging their shortcomings. They were not diverse. They were elitist. They did not expand their social circles. Their hubris prevented them from empathizing (or even sympathizing) with their fellow citizens from lower social classes. They imposed their will on the lower classes whenever they could. Their American Dream was not inclusive.
America was founded on slave labor. Most of the Founding Fathers owned slaves. And those who didn’t were clearly, to some degree, tolerant of it. Consider that slavery wasn’t “abolished” until 1865, almost almost 100 years after we became a nation. All of the Founders were long deceased by the time Blacks were not considered property or potential property. Even when slavery was “abolished” by law, its residue endured – Jim Crow laws for a century, mass incarceration and police brutality for more than 100 years. When the colonists were declaring independence, they did not mean independence for all Americans.
America was founded on bigotry. People of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community … we have all had to fight for our rights, over and over again.. At the great March on Washington, August 28, 1963, 250,000 people demanded that Black people have the freedom and the rights they were promised one hundred years earlier. For that time it was the largest movement in American history. Six decades earlier, more than 40,000 comrades and allies stormed the streets of New York City in 1915 so that women could vote.
Today I see my peers and those around me chant “Black Lives Matter.” In 2017, 470,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. for women’s rights. For my rights. One of the largest protests in American history was on April 25, 1993, for LGBTQ+ rights, at which it was estimated one million people marched in Washington DC. I see these movements emerging from fear of losing basic human rights. The last four years have taught us that tens of millions of Americans want a nation run by white males, for the benefit of while males. They should study the protests of 1915, 1963, 1993, 2017 and dozens of others throughout history, showing that Americans who love this country are unafraid of change. These protesters believe that change is necessary for growth.
When the Founding Fathers wrote that “all men are created equal” … I wish they meant it. I would like to imagine they envisioned hope and love for everyone. I wish they didn’t mean just men like them. I wish they meant that young women like myself were granted rights. I wish they would have valued me as a child for who I could become and the things I could do, rather than just the mother I could become. I wish they valued my brain and my character instead of the gender I identify with. I wish they encouraged me to create instead of just procreate. I wish that no one had to fight for the basic human right of living the life they want to live. I wish the Founders had envisioned that.
Perhaps we can all agree that the Founders merely created a skeleton. It is people like you and me that create heart and soul. America just might be great for all.