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McKaylee Martin
March 3, 2015
Professor Deborah Francis
Humanities 1100
Freedom, Responsibility, and Justice
Have you ever stopped to think about the wonderful country that we live in? Have you
ever stopped for a moment to give thanks for the liberties and freedoms that come with being a
citizen of these United States? I know that at times it can make a person wonder why we stay
here, or sometimes we question our leaders and believe that our lives would be better off
somewhere else. I think that everyone of us has had these thoughts, and well, if you haven't
kudos to you. If you look up the word "citizen" in the dictionary it states that a citizen is one who
is, "a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government
and is entitled to its protection." Take a closer look at this definition, "one who OWES allegiance
to its government." Would you agree that as a citizen of these united states that you owe
allegiance to these states? To our government? In fact, could you say that you have a
responsibility to this country? If you ask me, I would have to say yes. To many times have I
noticed people complain about our government, and question the actions of our leaders.
However, when asked if they are registered to vote, or if they have voted at recent elections, all
too often have I revived the response "no" or "my vote wouldn't make the slightest difference
anyways." Except that it does. If you do not like the way things are going, do you part, vote. At
least so that you can say you fought for what you believe in.
If you were to ask me what I would define as a "good citizen" I would say that it is a
person who truly struggles to be the best that that they can be. They do their part in their

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community by voting, obeying the law, being polite to their friends, neighbors and even
strangers. This can be hard to achieve at times, and I don't think that "once a good citizen, always
a good citizen." I say this because even "good citizens" are human. I believe that we were all
meant to be flawed and make mistakes. Having said that, I also believe that we should all strive
to be good citizens and do our best to make our communities and our country a place where
everyone wants to live, a place where we can feel safe.
As human beings we are built to have compassion for others, and we all have that need to
want to do something for someone else. We feel that we have a responsibility not only to
ourselves to do the right things, but also to others. As a country, we have felt the need to help
other countries, we feel the need to improve their way of life. Is this truly our responsibility? Is it
our job to make sure that the entire world is satisfied, and doing things the way that we would do
them? I wish I had a straight yes or no answer. As a human being we also have selfish
tendencies. Where is the line? How can we balance compassion, service, selfishness and duty to
ones country? As a human I feel that no one should be left behind, or that people should be
starving, sleeping on dirt, or separated from their families. However, I also believe that in order
for us to perfect others, we need to find perfection in ourselves first. We are a far from perfect
country. Will we ever get there? Probably not.
From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written by the United Nations General
Assembly, article one states that, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in spirit of
brotherhood." The dictionary defines brotherhood as, "the belief that all people should act with
warmth and equality toward one another, regardless of differences in nationality, creed, ethnicity,
etc." If we have agreed to act "brotherly", does that not mean that we should be looking out for

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one another? That we should be helping our fellow man in achieving the "pursuit of happiness"?
As a country, we have been helping others from the beginning of time, by training military
personnel, forming alliances, and much more. Has this become one of our values? Are we meant
to be the big brother, the protector of others? From We are our Values by Susan L. Anderson she
states, "The choice we make in selecting the values we live by should not be thought of as a
onetime event. It should, rather, be thought of as an ongoing lifetime process of refinement (or
sometimes more radical change)." If we back out now, and agree to keep ourselves out of other
countries affairs, are we going back on our values? From The U.S. Role in a Changing World it
states, "Since democracies are much less likely to start wars against other democracies, we will
be making the world a more peaceful place in the long run by spreading democratic values." By
spreading our values, and being that example to others, maybe we can make the difference in
achieving the ultimate goal of "making the world a better place".
We may not have all of the resources to keep the entire world safe, but if we try, at least
we can say that we did that much. We all want to live in a better world, we may never know if
that is in fact obtainable if we never try. In fact, we must try. If we want to see a brighter future
and have hope for future generations, we must strive to be good citizens, vote, and stand behind
our troops. By doing so, at least we can say that we did our part.

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Works Cited Page

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citizen?s=t>.
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Brotherhood?s=t>.
Watson, Jr. Institute for International Studies. The U.S. Role in a Changing World. Providence,
RI: Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown U, 2004. Print.
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." It Begins with Our Questions. Plymouth: HaydenMceil, 2013. 225-228. Reading.
Anderson, Susan L. "We Are Our Values." It Begins with Our Questions. Plymouth: HaydenMceil, 2013. 7-16. Reading.