Diversity

The United States of America is, at it's heart, a nation of immigrants. While Native Americans do live here, the vast majority of the population came here, at some time or another, from a different place. They came to make better lives for themselves. Whether they were escaping religious persecution, famine, or simply just looking for better lives for themselves, they came.
This led to a great diversity in our country. We are in fact, known for our great diversity. Look around at Americans and you see all colors, beliefs, personalities, in this regard we certainly aren't limited.
But we also come with a dark past. As a people we have committed hideous crimes. We massacred the natives of this beautiful land, enslaved African Americans, persecuted, in a kind or cruel irony, many different peoples for various reasons. And yet, we have made progress as well.
This progress shows in our schools where children of all races and beliefs playing together without worry. It shows in our tolerance of others when we listen, however grudgingly, to opinions and beliefs that differ from our own. It shows in our politics, in our rights and our new President Elect.
The 44th president of the United States of America, a country that clung to slavery long after many had abandoned it, will be a black man. He, like many others, has brought reminded us of a very important fact. That true tolerance, true acceptance, true diversity, doesn't come from celebrating our differences. Human beings as a rule, do not understand people by finding the differences in each other. We connect by finding that which is the same. Love of other people comes from knowing why they feel how they feel. It comes from seeing what we have in common that makes the other people human as well, no matter how they see things. The truly great thing about our country isn't how far we've come, it's how far we will be able to go.

Favorite Place in the Country

Gosh, this is such a hard question. One of the problems with living in such a large country is that there are so many places... This of course leads to lots of amazing places. Let me think.

I love Austin, it's amazing. But I love it the way you love your home town, it's not like exotic or anything. I suppose if I had to choose, I'd say Boston. It's a beautiful city. Also it's filled with so much amazing history. It has this amazing feeling partly because it's old, for an American city anyway. It feels like you could be there forever and never run out of things to do, places to go, ideas to explore. As an added bonus it has a subway. I love subways. To me they speak of freedom. It may be different once I can drive... Until then, at least, subways are a symbol of self-sufficiency.

Boston is also a religious center for me. The discoverer and founder of Christian Science,Mary Baker Eddy, lived in Boston for a long time. It was in Boston that she founded the Mother Church. Boston is important to me in many ways.

Terrorism

Here in the United States, we have experianced terrorism. The most well-known attack in (semi) recent years was the September 11th Attacks. They occurred on September 11, 2001. On that day 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. They flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth plane realized what was happening and were able to overcome the terrorists and fly the plane into a remote field instead of its intended target. Over six thousand were injured during the attacks and 2,998 were killed.

Other terrorist attacks have taken place but none so well known as those of September 11. People attack our country for various reasons. One of the most prominent is that our country has a tendency to make other people mad. Many disagree with our foriegn policy and, occasionally, disagree with it strongly enough to attack us. Many people also attack for religious reasons.

The best example of how the U.S. responds to terrorist attacks is, once again, the response to 9/11. Like most people around the world, fear tends to bring out the best and worst in Americans. Immediately after the attacks, many people showed great courage by returning into the affected buildings to search for survivors. Some of these rescuers, many of them firemen, did not come out again. At the same time, many people responded with hysteria and paranoia. To this day, some people believe that Muslims, even Arabs in general, are not to be trusted.

The response on a higher level was, basically, tighter security. Everywhere. Airline security got so bad that some people now show up for flights hours in advance. Security got even tighter after attempted terrorist attacks in Europe. Now, not only will one's nail clippers be confiscated, but one's shampoo will be taken away as well. The government also responded to the attacks by sending troops into the middle east, beginning a 'war on terror'.