Uniting Americans In The Articles Of Anna Quindlen, Abraham Lincoln, And Eboo Patel

Cooperation is one of the most important elements in order to make a nation move forward faster. In the articles, “A Quilt of A Country” by Anna Quindlen, “Making Future Better, Together” by Eboo Patel and the famous speech, “Gettysburg Address” from Abraham Lincoln, all have one thing in common. It is that diverse people should be getting along with each other and help each other from making mistakes in order to make the nation improve more rapidly. People had the mindset that different people are not the same as them and they don’t have the same culture or beliefs.

Therefore, they do not like each other which creates more conflict. They battle each other and tear the nation apart, but they soon realize that when people have different opinions or a different path to success, it could really affect the nation in a good way quicker. Ultimately, different people should be getting along with each other when they are living together instead of debating different opinions of each other. Also, they should compromise or respect each other’s opinions.

In “A Quilt of A Country,” Anna Quindlen argues that when there are conflicts or tragedies, diverse people come together as one and fight back. An example of this is when Quindlen suggests that because “terrorism” and “armed conflicts,” “the citizen of the United States” cooperates with each other and fights back the outside threat. (Quindlen 5). This illustrates that people of the U.S. are being threatened by danger outside attacking in their territory. At that moment, they do not care about what they are or who they are anymore and fight back as one because they live in the country and the attacks cause a lot of damage to the nation. Therefore, this idea is important because different people are getting along with each other by helping when they are being attacked. They may hate each other since they have different opinions or ethnicities, but when there is a threat, they do not care about their differences, instead, they are holding each other’s hands to fight back the enemy.

Another instance of different people being highly adaptable with each other is “even warring religions and cultures”, “people of different” could still live together “side by side” and help each other out. (Quindlen 6) Clearly, Quindlen conveys even though people have differences, they are still able to live alongside one another. They can try to learn how to accept each other differences. This reinforces the importance of how people are still doubting each other’s differences, but they can try to learn to bear the differences and get along with people creating a better nation. When people have more tolerance, it can lead to making a better nation. When people recognize and accept others’ differences, it can guide others to feeling happy and willing to help. To conclude, these examples demonstrate people of different races and cultures can get along because they learn how to accept other people and help each other out when they are struggling.

In “Making the Future Better, Together” Eboo Patel argues that when people have come together as one, they are better together as one nation than being just one person. An example of this is when Patel suggests that he has a “high hope” of “people from the four corners of the earth” could do something together, things such as “build a nation” or show other countries that the U.S is better together than being alone. (Patel 9) This demonstrates Patel has a hope that people coming from different places on the earth contribute to help to build the United States become a better place for them. He also thinks that when diverse people come together they share thoughts and opinions about others’ mistakes to aid each other. Therefore, Patel addresses the importance of diverse people living together since they have different thoughts and opinions so they could help each other out, such as helping to create designs that enhance the nation much faster. In order to do such things, they need to have tolerance for others, respect their opinions and treat them respectfully.

Another instance of people working together to build up an exceptional nation is shown when they “build bridges” that show people “are better together” they are lowering “the barriers” of people believing they are better when they are alone. (Patel 19) Clearly, this conveys that when people are supporting each other, they are helping decrease the belief that working alone is better. These actions could lead to people living peacefully and having fewer conflicts against each other. Here, the author reinforces the idea that working together creates a strong community since they adapt from the idea of working together and it reduces the boundary of the idea of people thinking they could surpass others when they work alone. People can gain more trust from each other and build up a healthy friendship towards each other as they are being cooperative. As people are working side by side, they start to accept each other’s differences. To conclude, these examples demonstrate as people are working together, they gain trust, build friendships, and have respect towards each other as they are helping among themselves.

In “Once Upon a Time,” Nadine Gordimer argues that diverse people are not trustworthy and because they are different from the people in this nation, they should not be welcome in any of our houses. An example of this is when “people of another color were quartered” they are protesting creating “riots” and not permitted to enter inside “the city” (Gordimer 7). Gordimer illustrates that outside of the city people of different colors are making chaos which makes people inside the city scared and does not allow them to enter.

Therefore, this idea is important because it shows how the people of the nation don’t want people of different races to help with anything, they don’t have the same thoughts or opinions so the citizens do not respect their ideas and that will create more conflict between immigrants and people in the country such as protesting or boycotting. Everyone, whether they are immigrants, people of color, or citizens should be treated fairly and welcomed by all. However, in the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln challenges all citizens of the United States to cooperate with each other. He wants to make “the government by people” are made “by the people.” (Lincoln 4)

Clearly, Lincoln conveys that he wants the citizens of the United States to come together and form a government that will benefit them, and not just the people with power. This further reinforces the idea of diverse people working together will create a better future because when people cooperate with one another, anything can be accomplished faster. Even though they might have different ideas, they can help each other and correct each other’s mistakes as they move towards the goal of building a better nation. It is good to have different perspectives because two heads are better than one. Although there are some challenges to national unity such as being different and having dissimilar opinions and thoughts, they can still come together as one nation when our freedom is under attack.

In conclusion, even though living together under a roof with diverse people may not always go as smoothly as it seems, people can hold hands together and help make the nation a better place for everyone. From the three articles the readers have read, they all are supporting the fact that people of different races when working together can help each other and correct each other’s mistakes. They can also give opinions based on actions so they can make the nation move faster. Some readers may agree with Gordimer's, or some may have the same opinion as the rest of the authors, but those are opinions that help to make the nation the way people want it to be. As of today, people might want to take action and make some changes based on the discrimination problem and change it to make the future better.