Is America the “Home of the Brave” Anymore?

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With yet another school shooting that has brought heartache to our nation, we are once again having to confront our constitution and ask if it is truly worth the paper it’s printed on. Relying on such an ancient document to inform our modern world can seem as archaic as jaywalking. America is the land of the free, but as we stoke the fires of debate yet again about the right to bear arms, there may be a bigger question that we need to ask: are we the home of the brave? 

If anything, we live in a world of fear that makes us cling to our age-old sense of traditionalism. The ongoing police brutality that flows through America, from the riots in the 1960s all the way through to George Floyd and Tyre Nichols has made everybody question the notion of authority. If anything, we are a country that is even more distrusting of authority. The fact that the police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death were black officers themselves, for many, might be evidence enough that for any oppressed culture to feel like they are accepted, they have to join the ranks of the oppressors. 

OJ Simpson was the notable example of a black man in the 20th century that did everything they could to avoid being classed as a black man, which was all to do with the notion of fear, fear that they would not be accepted if they didn’t give up that part of who they were. But for every individual denying their rights to be accepted, there are the others who still rely on the right to bear arms as the sole reason for being a proud “patriotic” American. 

The Capitol-storming vigilantes spurred on by Trump was a reaction based on fear. Since Donald Trump moved into the White House, there was an influx of those who considered themselves to be the minority asserting themselves. They proclaimed they were asserting themselves because they wanted America to harken back to something more like it was, again relying on the outdated constitution, but this arose from fear, posturing alpha males who needed the support of their fellow red cap wearers to rip through and cause panic to America at its core. 

There is strength in numbers, but when those numbers are all fearful individuals- fearful of people taking their place, this is not the foundation for an America that is the “home of the brave.” 

We are at a crossroads. Fear, since the pandemic, fear since Donald Trump, and fear since the war in Ukraine have caused white America to retreat ever further into a scarcity mentality. Gays and lesbians getting married, a black woman going into Harvard, or even minorities using food stamps are perceived as taking things away from what should be “ours.”

We are not the home of the brave; in fact, we live in a place that is perpetuated by fear. We may have constitutional liberties but we still think collectively as a nation that something is going to be taken away from us. Is America the home of the brave anymore? It doesn’t look like it.