It has been said time and time again that America is the “land of the free.” America has come to symbolize life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for centuries. Now, as great as this sounds, does our nation truly live up to its promise?

Freedom seems like a great ideology, one beyond dispute, but as it turns out, liberty is not so easily attained for many. This has proven true throughout the history of our nation. Unfortunately, freedoms have been denied or taken away from fellow innocent Americans, most notably during times of crisis.

For example, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed as a result of the increasing population of Chinese workers on the west coast, caused white people to be up in arms. These racist white workers feared that if this migration continued, they would be put right out of a job.

According to History.com, “Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white ‘racial purity.’”

As a result of the majority saying that Chinese migration was unfavorable, Congress ripped the very shreds of these people’s unalienable rights that they should have been allowed to have. Even though this crisis happened a long time ago and has been solved, a similar problem occurs today.

Illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border is a major problem. Many people say that these undocumented aliens should not be allowed to get past the border security system or be allowed to participate in our economy. Although I must agree that border security is a must, we would not have this problem in the first place if the country had a more equitable naturalization process. 

Some of the people who oppose this piece of legislation tend to do so in hate of Mexicans and in fear that America will be overrun by  people who will adversely affect the economy. So, just because you don’t want job competition that means these poor people should have their rights taken from them? I think not. However, presidential hopeful Donald Trump seems to think so. He also thinks that just because he can curse his way through times of fear and uncertainty by claiming he would bomb ISIS means that it’s right to ban Muslims.

Under his plan, all Muslims who are not currently in the U.S. will be denied entrance into the country regardless of what part of the world they hail from. It is unjust that these religious liberties be violated. It is clearly written in the constitution that every citizen has the right to practice any faith of their choosing.

It just goes to show that if there is a good amount of people out there who support such an idea, such an intolerant idea can become a platform for presidential candidacy. Certain groups of people should not be sought out just because of a fear of an overgeneralized threat. The threat is not Islam, it’s Radical Islam, therefore, the whole Muslim community should not be discriminated against as a result of a small minority of the faith’s representatives.

This brings us to ask ourselves, is America truly free? What does it mean to be free? Does it mean freedom from segregation? Or does it mean freedom of speech provided by the first amendment? Can all people be free or only some of us? Those, my friends, are questions we need to ask ourselves if we are to move forward as a world power and a beacon for those seeking liberty, like our forefathers.