ESSAY OF THE PEOPLE'S NEEDS

To be clear, and to start, this essay will include the needs of the people I’ve seen as of late, fulfilled, ignored, incomplete, and forgotten. I believe the needs of the people have been tossed around today and confused as wants or harm to others and those asking for them, those needs being put aside for others' gain, confusing everyone as to what they need, or what others should or shouldn’t have. I don’t believe that this should be our focus in America today; shuffling around the thought of true need should never be one’s concern. If we, the people, truly go through with putting others down beneath us, then what is the purpose of our America today? We must bring each other up, and assist one another regardless of one’s association with oneself, We must walk away from this prejudice as it is causing harm to the land, the people, and the freedom our founding fathers fought for many years ago. That is what I hope to accomplish here, by stating the needs of our people, of you and I, I hope to herd our people into an age of acceptance, love, and joy, where our concerns are not of silencing, hurting, shaming, rejecting, misinforming, conformity, but concerns of full bellies, happy futures, roofs over our heads, smiling faces, how many friends you can make, people you can help, and more.

Life, Liberty, And the Pursuit of Happiness

I’m sure you’re familiar with this phrase, and I figured it’d be best to start with the base. Our founding fathers made this phrase to give forth our people’s unalienable rights to our new government and to protect them with its existence. (Source 2) Life, meaning our quality of living, like being comfortable, being free, being happy from more than just a new toy or candy bar, but truly living and wanting to see the next day after day in our nation. (Source 3) Liberty, meaning being able to be you, yourself, as beautiful as you are as a person, and in that Declaration of Independence, meaning that no government, no person can take that away from you. (Source 4) Pursuit of happiness, meaning being able to pursue that life and liberty just mentioned for yourself and others, pursuing the best life possible for yourself and others. To pursue true American happiness, not money, not belongings, not vacations, but knowing that you as a person, everyone as a person, can help one another to success, that it is possible in our nation to be your own person, to not be loyal to a piece of land, or a single person, but to each other, to the society you live in together as you strive to make it better everyday. (Source 1) That is one of many needs of our people. Without our Life, our Liberty, and our Pursuit of Happiness, ideals fought for since the very beginning of this nation, how can we call ourselves America? How can we call ourselves the land of the free we’ve called ourselves if people are living in poverty, their lives not being fulfilled? How can we call ourselves the nation brave people have laid their lives down for in the hope of a better future if that future has that beautiful individuality, that uniqueness that can only truly be observed, not stated, be shunned, and put down? How can we call ourselves Americans if the happiness that comes with being American, the happiness of America, is pushed away when there are American citizens unable to be themselves, unable to aid their society because they cannot aid themselves?

This is one of the many needs of our people.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Equality

Now, I’m pairing Equality with DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) here because Equality is explored more in depth in DEI, with greater flexibility and versatility than Equality can define on its own. To start, let's go step by step, defining these words and what they mean to us, the people of the United States, and their textbook definition. Diversity, by definition (Source 5), means “variety and being composed of many elements”, like a cake. To make a cake, you need a variety of mixed and baked ingredients to make the sweet treat. We the people (Source 6) have defined and used it in the meaning of “Inclusion of different backgrounds and national origins”. The way we use Diversity in our workplace and lives is very similar to its base definition, but instead of making ingredients, it's us belonging together, interacting together, smiling and laughing as many of different origins and selves, like milk, eggs, flour, and mix, to result in the cake, for us meaning further existence, further happiness, for us meaning that result in the sweet bakery of life, where we all get included, risen, and can work to make ourselves happy and take care of those around us. Equity, by definition (Source 7), means “fairness or justice in the way people are treated.” In other words, it involves treating people fairly based on their needs and circumstances. We the people have defined it (Source 8) as having everyone’s voice heard equally and treated fairly, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to advance. By keeping people from falling behind and struggling, Equity helps people feel comfortable and safe in their workplace. Inclusion, by definition in this context (Source 9) (since inclusion has several Webster definitions), means the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded. As I mentioned before, keeping our people from being left behind, inclusion keeps everyone informed, effectively uplifting spirits, and building everyone up. We the people define Inclusion (Source 10) as the act of creating environments individuals feel welcomed, respected, and supported. Inclusion is needed to create a feeling of belonging and empowerment within everyone in a community.

This is one of the many needs of our people.

The First Amendment

The First Amendment, one of many in our Constitution, includes Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of peaceful assembly, and Freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. (Source 11) Freedom of Religion allows you to practice any religion you choose or none at all, which lets you be an Atheist (One who has no religion) or Religious (One who participates in religion) without punishment or pressure from your government. Freedom of Religion is important because you don’t have to hide what you believe in or fear repercussions, you get to believe whatever you’d like. Without this freedom, religious violence against those who believe and don’t believe in religion will run rampant and cause the unnecessary deaths of thousands, and the progression of our world will become slower and discouraged. (Source 12 & 13) Freedom of Speech allows you to express yourself without government interference or regulation, letting you speak your mind, your concerns, your worries, your happiness, all of that and more, without fear of punishment (minus threats, but that's a different issue). (Source 14) Without Freedom of Speech, you wouldn’t be able to speak your mind at all, without our Freedom of Speech protections, everyone would have to wear a mask, act like cogs in a machine, without our sense of self, our Freedom of Speech, is one of the most important Freedoms we have. (Source 15) Freedom of the Press lets you publish and share information, ideas, and opinions without censorship or interference, this is very similar to Freedom of Speech, but Freedom of the Press includes our Freedom of Speech in the media, such as newspaper, social media blogs, articles, news broadcasts, etc. (Source) Without our Freedom of the Press it would be very difficult, sometimes impossible, to spread ideas, information, and opinions with a stable platform, we as the people need to be able to spread our ideas freely for the growth of our United States because if we don’t the line between truth and lies will become more and more unapparent. (Source 17) Freedom of Peaceful Assembly lets you gather with your fellow citizens to raise your voice and concerns to your local government with a peaceful protest, allowing injustice to be fixed and your views to be seen. (Source 18) Freedom to petition the government, which means that you have the right to seek correction from the government for wrongs and injustices. Your freedom of petition, when your government takes action against a group, sometimes even against you, you have the right to seek correction. There cannot be any punishments for it; you have your freedom of speech, and no one can take that from you. If you see yourself or another being oppressed, say something in the confidence that you are helping your fellow human being, because no one can stop you.

This is one of the many needs of our people.

Security and Stability

This is the broadest part of my essay, because security and stability can mean many things, but what I want to focus on the most is emotional, physical, and social security, along with financial, health, and housing stability. Let’s start with the security parts. Emotional Security, the ability to feel safe, confident, and free from anxiety. (Source 21) That’s hard for several people; most struggle just to feel confident. A part of building everyone up includes being there for those around you mentally. When people don’t have emotional security, they can’t focus on their life going on without them, they feel depressed, in crucial cases, even suicidal. You feel more sensitive to stress, you become more likely to engage in self-harm just to cope, something I’ve struggled with excessively myself in the past. (Source 22) This is why it's crucial that resources to help with emotional security are needed. Physical Security, equally as important as emotional security, includes actions taken to protect people from harm or danger in the world. Without it, how would anyone feel safe to do anything? That’s why we have some sets of laws, these are made in the interest of people’s physical security, to keep the citizens of the US away from harm as best as they can. (Source 23) Keeping and especially improving what we have now for physical security will ensure citizens feel safe when interacting with the community. Social security, in the sense of social interaction, is the ability of the community to maintain its core values despite hardship. This includes the safety of the people in it, and its social cohesion. (Source 24) With cared-for social security, we can grow emotionally and physically, reduce isolation cases, and make people feel like they belong. Those three results are essential for anyone to grow up and live effectively. If you weren’t properly nurtured emotionally or physically, then how are you going to manage relationships or care for yourself when you reach adulthood? If you’re isolated, you won’t know how to interact properly with anyone. We as humans are social creatures, we need that interaction with one another to grow. If you don’t feel like you belong, then you’ll try to force yourself into some unattainable and oppressive mold; most who feel excluded will try to change themselves into someone unrecognizable to themselves. We need to be who we are, not who others want us to be. Financial, health, and housing stability, these three are mostly external issues, since we’ve already covered mental health. Keeping these in good health is hard in today’s world, wages are low, prices are high, and the minimum wage isn’t enough to live on. Homelessness is an ever-growing problem, and most fear going to the hospital, not because of physical injuries, but those to their wallets, because of insurance not covering hospital bills, most have to pay out of pocket, leading to poverty and malnutrition. (Source 25) I’ll be talking about these three interchangeably because they all fall under the issue of money. Like I mentioned, most just aren’t making enough to live comfortably. Even my own family has struggled financially in the past. Now, let’s do some quick math to end this section off. According to Source 26, the majority wage of an American per hour is $16, and according to Source 27, the average work hours of an American per week is 35. So, average per month (let's say 4 weeks in a month, 35*4=140 hours a month, 140*16=2240) would be around $2200 without tax. According to Source 28, the average rent a month for America is $1600, for my family it's around $750, so let's go with that for this example. After rent is paid, you have $1490 (we’re still not counting tax in this example). Source 29 says the average cost of groceries (food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc) is about $500, so after groceries, you have $990. Source 30 includes average cost for utility bills (Sewer, Electricity, Water, Phone, Streaming, etc), which is a cost of $580, lowering the remaining $990 to $410. Now, onto insurance, let’s only cover car insurance and health insurance for this example. Sources 31 and 32 say that the average for both is about $690, bringing it into the negative at $-282. This, like mentioned before, is not affected by tax, but it's also not affected by car payments or payments off any other expensive item, pets, loans, gas for your car, education, and many, many more monthly expenses that many around the world have to pay for monthly, and this was with a monthly wage of $16 an hour with some leeway and lowered estimations! Some states in America have a minimum wage of $7.25/hr! How is any American supposed to live off these wages? Have stability of any kind? Some could opt for cheap housing like campers, but how does that fit with living comfortably? Or achieving that pursuit of happiness I mentioned at the beginning?

This is one of the many needs of our people.

Conclusion

Now that I’ve explained the broad of our needs, I’m going to lose the professional tone I’ve been writing with for this conclusion. There is so much more I could get into explaining every need American citizens have been without, but then this essay will never end. So, I decided to explain everything in broad terms, never quite limiting the umbrella of my explanation to not leave anything up for speculation. In our day’s time, everything is up to be taken away, so I felt like I had to. To be honest, I don’t plan to stay in the United States when I grow up; to me, it doesn't feel like a safe place to be anymore. “The Land of the Free”, a phrase that gave the United States its reputation as the new land, somewhere where people from all over the world could migrate to live a life where they can do whatever they want, and become whoever they want to be. That phrase isn’t true anymore, People are being harmed for who they are, shamed for who they are, killed for who they are, and oppressed for who they are. Our world today reminds me a lot of a book I’ve been reading, “I Must Betray You” by Ruta Sepetys. (Source 19) The book is a historical thriller about the time in 1989 in Romania. The main character is named “Christian”; he’s forced to be an informer for the secret police after being blackmailed. Christian was born while Ceaușescu, the dictator responsible for Romania’s condition at that time, was ruling the country, so he has no idea what life outside is like, and he thinks his world of oppression, distrust, and fear is normal. He only learns what it's like by watching illegal movies and hearing what the past was like from his sick relative, Bunu. When I read this book, I couldn’t help but draw similarities to today’s time. You should go read it for yourself as well. Stories like those, and those happening in reality, are why I wrote this essay, because things need to change. If they don’t, history will repeat itself. We need to use our voice and our actions to change America. It's sad that people like me are feeling that they have to flee America, the self-proclaimed “Land of the Free”. I’ve even seen other countries advising against travel to the US. Is this what the land of the free means? Is this what our country was made to embody? If this is what our country was destined to be, then it will fall as those oppressed flee and those in control fall with it, as history repeats once more. Its destiny needs to change, we need to look back on the ideals on which this country was founded. Our founding fathers were oppressed, used, commanded, and controlled without representation or consent. Whatever America is now, I’m sure it is not what it was made to be, and it needs to be treated as such. Its citizens need to be able to live their lives to the fullest, to truly embrace the phrase “The land of the Free”. But it doesn’t have to stay like this. If all of us speak up, lift each other, and make this country what it was meant to be, then maybe, “the land of the free” could become a true and powerful statement we can be proud of.

That is one of the many needs of our people.