My Reflections
I have learned that there used to be a lot of trust in the leaders of our community, and that people used to not doubt questionable activity. The people in Puritan Salem saw 200 court accusations and 20 executions before they finally realized something was wrong with their leaders. Today if even a well-trusted leader accused someone of (of course not witchcraft) some heinous crime you had better have some evidence or no one will believe you. This research has also made me wonder about the American Dream, and if America was ever really a dream come true for anyone. The American Dream meant coming to America and being free of persecution and living with all different types of cultures and people. The Salem Witch Trials were full of persecutions and plenty of other events have occured that have ruined many people's dreams. To explain what I have learned, a section of a poem stood out to me by Langston Hughes.
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let
it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is
free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream
the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where
never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one
above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land
where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity
is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's
never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the
free.")
It explains to me that many people never really experienced this "American Dream" where freedom is present and you have an opportunity to make your own riches. Most have never experienced this so called "homeland of the free".
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let
it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is
free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream
the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where
never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one
above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land
where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity
is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's
never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the
free.")
It explains to me that many people never really experienced this "American Dream" where freedom is present and you have an opportunity to make your own riches. Most have never experienced this so called "homeland of the free".