Hope For America's Future

American History: Our Hope for the Future Eleanor Rosevelt once said, “The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” In my dreams of America’s future, I see the people living with the values of the people from days gone by. When my parents, elderly relatives and friends tell me stories from when they were children, we were brought back to a time to when people had compassion for each other, helped one another, had faith in God that he would watch out for them, had respect for each other, and were independent. This gives me visions of a time in history that can be a reality in our future.
My hope for the future that lived once in the past is, being independent. We should rely more on ourselves than what we do today.
We look to stores to buy our food and clothes. Looking back on American history, we can see that people relied on themselves to get what they wanted. Another thing that is occurring in America today is that we always rely on the internet to answer our questions. People didn’t always have the technology that we do today, all questions we answered through books and other people. Take a look at all the knowledge we know today, everything we know comes from someone, not the internet. My dad once told me, “ When an elder dies, it’s like an entire library burning to the ground.” We think we are too lazy to look things up in a dictionary, but what makes us any different than those from our past. This generation always takes the easy way out, looking up the answer rather than finding it and understanding it for ourself. My hope for the future is to see what happened in the past, to see people look inside themselves to answer those questions.

Another great thing that they had in the past that I hope to see in America’s future is respect.
Many people don’t have the respect for others in comparison to the past. It is horrible to see not only children, but adults, disrespect each other in such a harsh and cruel way. There is many categories of respect, such as the respect of the American flag, people, animals, and the land. Americans today don’t have respect for the environment like they did in the past. We pollute American soil every day, even an act as small as throwing a plastic bag out the car window affects the environment in a harmful way. Oil spills have a major impact on the ecosystem. According to statistics, 1.3 million gallons of petroleum is spilled into American waters from different sources yearly. We need to have more respect for the land we live on. At the same time the people of our history had respect for themselves. They held themselves at a higher standard than the people of today's day and age. My hope for our next gerneration’s future is that this very respect shines within them.

A big thing that lived true in our American History that I hope to see in our future is Christian beliefs and values. Taft Benson once said, “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place.” I truly believe in my heart that God and faith should be put back into the minds and hearts of future Americans. In the people of history, they had a stronger faith in God than what is seen in people today. The
change that I would like to see take place in America’s future is more faith in God.

I feel that we should learn from our ancestors, look upon them as a guide to help us achieve a better future for America. If we could ask our ancestors what you are asking me today, what my hopes are for America’s future, what would they have said? Are we what our ancestors would have hoped the future would be? I think that we should honor our ancestors for what they have given us today. Thomas Morden said once that we must, “Learn from the past, Prepare for the future, Live in the present.”