American History

The founding fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America clearly states the American inalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The repressive administration that these people experienced from the administration of the English had brought to them to push for a society wherein they are allowed to pursue their right to life, freedom and happiness. The Declaration of Independence had shown to the world the outstanding and admirable values of the American like our desire for equality, respect and opportunity (Kyl 2007).

Reviewing these values in the current American society, it is sad to say that these values are not realized as much as it should be in the past. The first and most important problem lies on the inability of the younger generation to distinguish the rights that made possible the establishment of American society under the banner of life, liberty and happiness. According to some recent surveys, more than 15 percent of college seniors do not even know the rights that the Declaration of Independence is denoting. This in addition to the assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress report on primary school and high school students failure in the proficiency in U.S. History even in the basic level (Kyl 2007).

This is what is referred as the national amnesia. We are forgetting where we came from making us to forget our destination in the very first place. The story of America is the greatest story of politics that have occurred and this is what the younger generations is missing. This poses a huge problem due to the fact that we must first know our rights before we can live up on to them. Younger generation cannot live to the values that our founding fathers fought for if they do not know what their rights and obligations in the very first place (Bennett 2007).