Jose A.

Varias Online English Timed Writing Week 13 Thomas Paines statements about America amazingly still hold true today. Much of what our founding fathers fought so hard to achieve can be observed in our present nation. We are still governed by the same values for a free country that was set forth for us more than two centuries ago. In the passage of the book Rights of Man by Paine, he begins by noting the obvious differences in Americas population in the modern age, but then admires them for defeating those barriers and living more as one united country, despite their diversity. Disagreement among the population was common back in the founding times. With such a varied melting pot, one can see how these combinations of so many different cultural backgrounds might have difficulty of coming to terms with each other. Americas diversity is shown prominently in its most densely populous areas, such as New York and Los Angeles. In those cities, approximately 35% to 50% of the population speaks something other than English. Similar to the nation they lead, a number of functionaries in America presently and in history were born out of the country. Thomas Paine himself was born in England. The first Secretary of the Treasury for the United States, Alexander Hamilton was born in Nevis, Caribbean. However, unlike perhaps any other government of its time, Americas was based on the natural rights that all humankind shares and strives to attain and live by. This level of equality was unseen anywhere else in the world at that time, and already set America apart from other young countries. Paine reflects on how everything seems to just fall into place once the initial governmental procedures are set. However, this is far from the case in any establishment or government. It always takes enforcement to bring the new laws into practice. As history has showed and continues to show, there remain those who do not fully support new laws, and this disagreement has led to other conflicts, some of which have really challenged the new nations stability in its earlier ages. Furthermore, people regardless of wealth and status on the social hierarchy have still experienced some degree of prejudice. Most millionaires nowadays do have privileges and sometimes even breaks from government control. Many people today from various walks of life are victims, and guilty of unconscious bias towards the unknown and different. The United States almost saw its end as a country as well, when the Southern states seceded from the Union as the Confederate States of America. This served as one of the sparks of the American Civil War. A big backdrop behind the war was the highly controversial issue of slavery. While the North saw it as human cruelty, the South viewed it as part of their daily livelihood and their economic system. The economic needs of the North and South differed greatly by climate, and it was by this inevitable force that caused war. As Paine remarked, but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires. If there are different perspectives on the principles of society and the rights of man as there was between the North and South on slavery, a dispute is bound to happen. The final sentences in the excerpt have Paine holding the poor and the rich on more equal terms. However, this was not the case in this issue during one of Americas costliest conflicts. Both the North and South likely viewed themselves as higher ranked than the other half, due to the simple fact

that they lived in their respective places, they were not able to thoroughly understand each other and they paid for this dearly with life and money. Thomas Paines description in the excerpt of Rights of Man of young America still holds true today. While some of the policies might be different we are still undoubtedly governed by the same principles that our first leaders struggled for. Though his descriptions are debatable for eras in Americas history, our nation, regardless of disagreement, thoroughly supports Paines words through the test of time.