Is the United States run like an Empire?

In chapter four of our history textbook Eurasian Empires the author of the book starts the chapter with a question of “Is the United States the new Roman Empire?” When I initially read that question I thought, well that is interesting I never thought to look at the US as an empire. As I continued to read the chapter it was surprising to read about the similarities in structure and government compared with the Roman and Persian empires and our government and structure in the United States. Some similarities between the Persian empire and the United states are: The Persian empire was ran by a monarch that could only be approached by a certain ritual. Could this not be compared to the President in the White House? Not just anybody can get in, and if you do get into the White House you have to go through tough security and other measures just to get to the President himself. The Persian Empire had an “administrative system where they had governors in each province and lower level officials were picked from local authorities. (pg. 100)” Here in the United States we have a governor for each state and lower level official are chosen by either people already in politics or voted on by the public. The Persian bureaucracy flourished for 1000 years or more with their coinage system, taxes on each province and canals that were used for trading purposes. The United States has their own coinage system, has a tax system in place; taxing business, consumers, and individuals, and has water ways throughout the United States and surrounding it so people can reach us from other parts of the world through boat.

• Now I will compare the Roman Empire to the United States. Here in the United States we are supposed to be run like a republic, but are we really? In the book on page 109, in regards to the Roman Empire and being ran as a republic, the book states, “The values of the republic- rule of law, the rights of the citizens, the absence of pretension, upright moral behavior, keeping one’s word- were later idealized as “the way of the ancestors.” Now let’s compare that to the United States….. Rule of the law, why yes we do rule by the law and sometimes not in the favor we are looking for. The rights of the citizen, this can be questionable depending on who you ask. Some people believe that even though we have rights as a citizen that our rights our not being valued or people believe that their rights are violated. The absence of pretension, since I did not know what pretension meant I looked it up on dictionary.com and this was the definition, “The laying of a claim to something. A claim or title to something. Often, pretensions. A claim made, especially indirectly or by implication, to some quality, merit, or the like.” In regards to the absence of claim making, hello the start of the United States has everything to do with claim making. There was the claiming of land, of gold, of slaves to name a few, so obviously there was not an absence of pretension. Upright moral behaviors. People in other countries are probably laughing at the United States with this one. Yeah, the people representing our nation should uphold the correct moral behaviors but that is questionable too. From former President Clinton and his scandal with Monica, to the top military leaders having affairs with women, even to the Terminator coming out and saying he has an affair and a love child. These are people who are running our country not a store. Are these the people we want our future to look up to or want to be? The last point on keeping one’s word, well that just goes out the window. If words were really kept then we would have a stronger, moral government. There is a documentary that I had watched where President Bush junior. was talking about not raising taxes while he was in office because he wanted the United States to thrive, well a few years later he goes back on his word and raises taxes causing eventually a recession in 2008.
• To end my blog I wanted to give you the definition of a democracy from dictionary.com. Democracy- “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. A state having such a form of government. A state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.” Now I leave it to you is the United States really a Republic or does it fall more under a Democracy? Will the US fall like the Persian and Roman Empires, since the United States is run similarly to the rules of the Persian and Roman Empires?

Native American Women and Inequality

When reading the The Ways of the World history book, I was very interested in Chapter one: The first Peoples Populating the Planet. Ever since I was in Elementary school I have always had a fascination with Native Americans. I consider Native American’s the true people, of this great land we live on. It bothers me when I hear people talking about Christopher Columbus discovering the United States. He didn’t discover it. It was already discovered by the Native Americans who were already living on this land before Columbus or any Spaniard set foot. The Native Americans I feel had a lot to teach and some very good points. Native Americans were very resourceful people who used only what was needed and was not wasteful of any leftover materials, and they worked together as a clan, where female and male jobs were equally important. I know that in Chapter three it says, with improvements to how crops were tended to that the jobs of women (the gatherers), were given to men, since men had to attach animals to carts it was a job that called for more strength than a woman can bear. What great news though, woman still get to take care of the children, cook and clean. I see that same pattern now a days. The only exception is that most woman now work, on top of doing all of the “normal” womanly duties. You would think though that woman would be treated equally again, but statistics show that even now men are viewed higher than women. I feel that if it were not for outside influences to daily life, than Native American woman would have always and probably still would have been seen equal to the opposite sex.