A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One?

“A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One?” was written by Anna Quindlen. She gives her thesis in the opening paragraph; “America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone.” Quindlen argues that our nation; the United States considers themselves as being equal and whole. However, that is not evident to how we live our lives every day. She uses the title to outline a question, to make us think about how we actually see our nation. Quindlen uses the first part of the title to say that our Country is made up of many pieces, like a quilt. The second part of her title expresses a question. In those quilt pieces, we only chose one to represent our Country. However, every piece of the quilt that she is referring to all symbolize something different.
In my preference, America is known as the “melting pot.” In which we add in different cultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, religion, and monetary status. The sense of a “melting pot” is important and indeed makes the United States who we are today. However, we tend to position people in different classes and this makes our “all men are equal,” imbalanced. I completely agree with Anna Quindlen, in that our Country still practices segregation but covers it up by saying we are all “equal.” She uses 9/11 as a perfect example to show how our nation came together in a time of need.