When I think of America, many things come to mind. A long list made up of things both positive and negative. A person should be reasonable in the judgment of their homeland, and when coming up with something I felt symbolized America, I didn’t want to pick something too negative or too positive. Let’s face it: our country isn’t apple pie and baseball, or flags and eagles. It isn’t just red, white, and blue. There is crime, poverty, and sickness behind these great and traditional symbols of our country.

So I started brainstorming. I thought to myself, "What has America stood for over the years? What has this country represented to so many people generation after generation? And most importantly, what is there when America hasn’t seemed to stand for this?" In my mind, it only makes sense that something America has stood for could also stand for America. The only thing that made sense after this long line of thinking was "hope". It is hope, to me the embodies the American culture like no other word or concept

From looking at our past, you can see that hope has always permeated our culture. When the first colonists left their home country to find a new land, they had hope for a better future. Far be it from them to understand that the native savages deserved the same. Anyway, that was what came to be known as the American Dream; the hope in a better quality of life than our parents had. It isn’t always realistic. If the life of your parents was bad enough, then there isn’t much chance of improving the quality of your life significantly in your lifetime due to being denied the opportunities to do so. But the hope, however wishful, is still alive.

Today, when so many aspects of our society appear to be bleak, there is an attitude that you can’t get rid of. People still flock to America in pursuit of the American dream. In fact, I’ve heard that if it wasn’t for immigration our population would be decreasing! America is obviously a symbol of hope or it wouldn’t bring so many people to its shores.

Hope also drives America. No American gives up completely on their country. When it looks the worst there is always the hope in the possibility that it all can turn around. Whether it is a bad public policy, a presidential pinhead, or an economic downturn, there is the hope that in a few more years everything will turn around

It isn‘t all so idealistic, of course. Sometimes, rather often, we allow ourselves too much hope in things that tend to not work out very well, and our culture is very accepting of this. We rely on certain things too much and don‘t see the error of our ways. We have the hope that technology will fix all our blunders. The belief that our country‘s unique capitalistic approach can solve all of a society’s problems. And we hope that our way of life is the best way of life, often to the point of wanting to force it on other people.

But, much of this is just why the American culture reminds me of hope. It also is a lot like hope. Hope is not much more than the wishful expectation of a desired outcome. Hopes are often unrealistic, and many of our society's expectations are also unrealistic. The expectation that everyone, regardless of background, can get a good education, a good job, and become moderately successful is the big unrealistic expectation that comes to mind.

Hopefully I have made more sense of this than I think I did. To me, though, it makes perfect sense. Without hope in the mix, our country would be seen bare and naked in all its shame and glory, and much of the precepts that we take for granted would be ineffectual. Hope, you could say, is not only a symbol of our country, but also what makes our country work. But is this because hope is just wishful thinking or something real and solid? A point to ponder on, I guess.

Yeah, that's it. Man, that's an embarassing paper. hahaha.