The Collapse of the American Empire

-by, Marquell Garrett
-DATED: January 12, 2008



When I was a young boy and sitting in my fifth grade classroom at Douglas Elementary School, I was told by my social studies teacher that a country should represent and protect all of its people, common or not. I was told that the greatest nation in the world was no other nation but our own, The United States of America. I was told that only America was build upon the ideas of liberty and the foundation of the people. I was told that America represented more than just a nation. America represented the ideas of freedom and equality that we all should cheeriest dear to our hearts and share with the world. I remember then believing that this nation was perfect as I recited the pledge to the flag every morning followed by the song, My Country Tears of The. This country couldn’t have been any better. Of course I knew of the racism still practiced in some places of this country today, but I managed to somehow accept this and accept a lot of other things that were wrong in this nation. I am proud to say that at age fourteen I managed to overcome my ignorance and saw America through a clear seat of eyes. I may have worn glasses then, and my eye sight may have not been the greatest. However, I clearly saw America not as the land of the free and the home of the brave, not as the nation I had learned of as a child, not even as a free and peaceful nation. No America, I saw this nation as something more terrifying than anything else in the world. America had lost the dreams of freedom and was near total failure. America was becoming the collapsed Roman Empire. Today America is worst off, and truthfully I must say that the only thing that drives me to continue my fight for equality and freedom in this nation is the words of my fifth grade teacher. “America represents more than just a nation. America represents the ideas of freedom and equality that we all should cheeriest dear to our hearts and share with the world” It is those words that keeps me fighting although majority of America believes equality should be controlled by the majority of the people and the government. It was the words of my fifth grade teacher that kept me fighting for equality after witnessing a great friend of mine thrown from his home by his own community all because he had became an atheist. It is the words of my fifth grade teacher that kept me driving on for equality after hearing about multiple science and history educators fired from their positions after it was discovered they were atheists. It was the words of my fifth grade teacher that kept me fighting strong after the President and right wing conservatives proposed to limit the rights of human beings in this nation to marry who they love. It was the words of my fifth grade teacher that kept me trucking on after learning 49 out of 50 states have banned same sex marriages. It was the words of my fifth grade teacher that continued me on my fight for equality after hearing of a college boy who was brutally beaten and killed by two fellow college mates who were known to be homo-phobias and the college mates were given a mere two years of prison time. It is the words of my fifth grade teacher that keeps me going on after several rejections from the U.S. Supreme Court to hear cases of the unconstitutionality of the phases “In God We Trust” on our currency, and “Under God” in our pledge. It is the foundation of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness, foundations set forth by our founding fathers, that keep me fighting for this nation while many have given up. It is that very same foundation that shall set this nation free and spread equality across the world. Many ask me, “Why do you fight so vigorously time and time again after so many failures and no success”? I must smile at these people and say only this, the ideas of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness can never be conquered by ignorance and hatred. As long as I am alive I will dedicate my life to these principles and will never rest until America is once more the land I dreamed of and heard of when I was in the fifth grade. There should be and will be tough laws to judge those who beat and murder innocence human beings because they are homosexual or don’t share the same belief in a god that doesn’t exist in the first place. There should be and will be laws that will judge harshly those who deny the right of another to pursue their happiness, dreams, and a marriage with whom ever. There should be and will be laws that judge harshly those who discriminate against others and deny others the fair and equal protection and representation of this government. There should be and will be laws eliminating the right for employers to dismiss employees because they are gay or non believers. You may say that some of these laws exist. I am inclined to disagree. If the equal protection clause was authentic then we would not have all of the discrimination problems we have in this nation today. No! Laws will be passed that will be explicit on the subject and will be fully enforced all of the time. I was recently told by a reverend and an evangelist that this nation was founded by religious men and so it is just the attempt of this government to place some of our founding fathers’ convictions and values into this nation. I was disgusted by these comments. First off, not all of our founding fathers were religious. We forget quickly those who weren’t because it helps with the fight to deny the basic and equal rights and representation for all Americans by this government. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the greatest of all of our founding fathers, who assisted Thomas Jefferson with the Declaration of Independence, and also played a major role in the writing of the U.S. Constitution, was an atheist who came to America to free himself from the cruel politics in England and in search for a new nation that would not judge him on his absence of a religion, rather instead offer him peace and a fair representation by the government. Thomas Paine, also an atheist, wrote the famous Common Sense and Age of Reason. The fact is atheists played a major role in the building of this nation but is greatly disrespected today. A nation that is built by majority Christians does not make the nation a Christian nation. The ideas and values that our founding fathers wanted to show in this nation was the values of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness that was not to be challenged by the government or the majority of people. It was a right that all human beings have and religion should not be inserted in a nation and government. It sickens me to walk into a schoolhouse today and think I am in a church. Our children are being taught by this government and our school system that this is a Christian nation and that the fair and equal representation of all people by this government doesn’t matter. America has lost the dream and pride of freedom. We are so concerned today with teaching our kids about religion that we have failed to teach them about the true meaning of this government and failed to teach them things such as science. The United States is amongst the last ranking nations in the world in terms of science because we would rather teach religion in the classrooms instead of leaving that up to the parents and churches. Instead of calling them schoolhouses it should as well be called church houses. My brother asked my little niece, who is currently leaning about the constitution and this government, who was one person from the state of South Carolina that signed the U.S. Constitution. My niece failed to answer this question correctly because the state of South Carolina, and the federal government had failed to teach this to her. It seems that the school has now instituted an after school program that teaches the kids about Christianity and the bible. This program is not cheap and is financed by the school yet the school refuses to fund a field trip to Washington DC and a field trip to the Planetary which will both cause less than the bible study program. The fact is the public school system in America has collapsed much like the rest of America because of the fear of the growing number of nonbelievers in this nation and the prejudice and hatred toward atheists in this nation. There is still hope though, America. I will not give up on this fight yet. I will fight for change in this nation one community at a time even if it means my death. I will spread the ideas of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness to others and long after my death the fight will continue for equality in this nation. The day will come when their will be peace in this nation and two gay men or lesbian women can walk into a court room as lovers and walk out as a legal and committed couple. It is very hypocritical of this government to stand up and speak so strongly against the poor treatment and representation of Christians in Islamic dominate nations but say nothing about the way this nation ignores, mistreats, and disrespects the nonbelievers in this nation. It is very hypocritical the way this country stand up and speak so loudly against the treatment of women in some Islamic dominate nations all because some Islamic faiths requiring women to act and dress a certain way yet says nothing when the President of this nation vows to deny homosexuals the right to marry because it is nontraditional and ill moral according to his religious belief. I am asked by so many people what gives me the right to act out against the current trend of this nation and the Christians in this nation. It is my natural right and instinct to defend myself. I have sat around and done nothing for far too long. I sat around and done nothing after a young man was brutally beaten because he was gay. I sat around and done nothing while many educators was fired from their jobs because they were atheists. I sat around and done nothing while nonbelievers in this nation were denied the fair and equal representation of this government. I will not sit around and do nothing anymore. I am up and on my feet. This was for equality in America has begun and I am prepared for battle. There is no need for America to be surprised now. It is no surprise that a dog will bite you eventually if you house it with other dogs but ignore it and treat other dogs with more respect than it. There are people in this nation that say there is a religious revolution coming in this nation. There is a religious revolution coming to this nation. But the religious revolution in this nation is not of what this nation is expecting. This religious revolution is a revolution of nonbelievers and non Christians standing up with one voice and saying “this is not a Christian nation.” “The nonbelievers and non Christians in this nation will be equality represented and protected by this government.” “This government was created by the people and for all people and not just the majority.” I am told that I shouldn’t preach for people to revolt against the oppression in the nation and to revolt against the Christians in this nation. I am told that this will upset this nation and cause an imbalance. I must continue to laugh at those who tell me this. There is already an imbalance in this nation. When the nonbelievers in this nation are forced to spend currency that reads In God We Trust, there is an imbalance in this nation. When the pledge to this nation’s flag reads Under God, there is an imbalance in this nation. When our government officials and majority of states proposes and ban same sex marriages, there is an imbalance in this nation. When our government says that homosexual couples should not be allowed to adopt a child because it may bring confusion to the child although all statistics and studies show the opposite, there is an imbalance in this nation. When America denies life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness to innocent American citizens yet preach about democracy world wide, there is an imbalance in this nation. When the majority of America shout that this is a Christian nation just because majority of our founding fathers were Christians, there is an imbalance in this nation. I preach to correct this imbalance. I preached to save and rebuild the collapsed American Empire. I preach to restore the ideas of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness back into the hearts and minds of all Americans and to restore freedom to the land of America once more. In conclusion, as long as there is one person in America that believes America’s foundation should be life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness then there is still a chance that America might be saved. I will not discontinue my fight for equality in America. This nation is full of hatred, fear, and ignorance; but with the ideas of life, liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness, this nation can be restored once more to freedom. The flame of the American spirit has burned out. I will reignite that flame and carry the dream and pride of America to our future, the children of the world.