Faith, commitment, hard work, equality among the people; these are some of the keen attributes associated with the value system in the United States of America. The literal definition of faith, according to Oxford, is “the complete trust or confidence in someone or something;” while meritocracy is, “a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement.” Both of these definitions, along with equality, are deeply rooted within the veins that govern the United States and its people.
Most Americans defend their religion with a great deal of passion. People claim to be very devoted to their religion and call themselves a “good Christian” or get defensive whenever their religion is being belittled or talked down upon. Yet, whenever it comes to doing the right thing for your religion or actually being a good Christian a lot of people fail to do so. Judith, a philosopher, stated in her article ““ that even if a fetus is a human, it still makes abortion okay. However, this statement violates the value of faith tremendously. Nobody, neither you nor me, have the right to choose who lives and who dies. Birth control is provided through government aid if individuals cannot afford it, yet a lot of women don’t use the resources offered to them. Instead, when they find out they’re pregnant; abortion is used as a method of “birth control.” Abortion, no matter which trimester and/or reason, should be completely obliterated, not only from the United States, but also from the face of this Earth. America’s roots and upbringing has consisted of faith, meritocracy and egalitarianism, thus it should remain that way.
Gay marriage is another controversial issue that violates faith. It is understood, nonetheless, that not allowing gay marriage violates egalitarianism; however if the definition of marriage is changed, siblings will soon enough want to get married or even polygamous cultures will want to start claiming these values of equality. Gay marriage goes against Christianity, which is one of the American values, that has helped govern this nation. If gay marriage were to be allowed, then this value would no longer being regarded. Affirmative action has been proven to benefit a majority of the time, ‘‘‘‘ people who were already going to be successful. This defeats the purpose of affirmative action. Affirmative action was meant to help those who might not have as much equal opportunities as the majority of the population. When it comes to defending American issues, such as affirmative action, it should be judged as unbiased and fair as possible, in the sense of which individual will make this country a better place. For example, a “jock” on a full ride scholarship is focused on his sport, while a “genius” is focusing all his attention and efforts in educating himself so that he may one day benefit and impact America tremendously. Choosing the jock over the genius could mean choosing football over the cure for cancer. This is the reason why we should stick to our values and pursue meritocracy. The genius should be chosen over the jock. He has what it takes to be admitted into a college or university he is applying for and will be able to offer better things for our nation in a future rather than just a good football season. All in all, Americans should stick to their values, in order to be on the pursuit of a better nation. It is clear that the United States of America is a composed of a heterogeneous culture, which makes all the decision-making exponentially more difficult as opposed to a homogenous culture. Nonetheless, America needs to be clear on its principles and make sure not lose sight of them. The benefits of choosing this path, as opposed to a path full of uncertainty, is having more hard working, determined Americans strive to do the best they can and believe that hard work is necessary in order to achieve success in life. Choosing this path also helps this nation have more responsible, educated individuals making the pregnancy rate decrease, as abortions will no longer be thought of as a method of birth control. Furthermore, it is important that we as a nation relinquish same– sex marriage, in order to prevent any physiological effects on young children that might be looking for a role model or someone to look up to.