American Citizen

"Only the traveller who stops at the point is totally wrong; and the traveller only too often does stop at that point. He has found something to make him laugh, and he will not suffer it to make him think. And the remedy is not to unsay what he has said, not even, so to speak, to unlash what he has laughed, not to deny that there something unique and curious about the American inquisition into our abstract opinions, but rather to continue the train of thought, and follow the admirable advice of Mr. H.G. Wells, who said ' it is not much good thinking of a thing unless you think it out'. It is not to deny the American officialism is rather peculiar on this point, but to inquire what it really is which makes America peculiar, or which is peculiar to America. In short, it is to get some ultimate idea of what America_is_; and the answer to that question will reveal something much deeper and grander and more worthy of our intelligent interest. 

What G.K. Chesterton mean by this paragraph in his essay "_What is America?_" is that the person that is hit with this reality when they come to America and they shut it out, is wrong. But usually the person does continue to think and draws this conclusion about America. When they are brought to light, they can't un-think what they realized, they can't go back to the dark. The facts are too intriguing and sometimes shocking to an outsider. So when they are hit with this reality of what it means to be an American, they have really think it out to understand it, and know what it means. Ultimately it gives them this picture of what America is and it may seem belittling or offensive to them; The fact that America won't let just anyone come into this country or just anyone become a citizen. The person has to believe in the beliefs of America, believe and abide by the rules and by the constitution and only then can they live in America.

This paragraph was important to me because I am not a born U.S. citizen. I wasn't born in America and when i became a citizen it was a different process for me because i was very young and i didn't have to take any test i just became a citizen because my mother was already an American citizen. For me it wasn't a mind-blowing experience but for some people it is They are leaving a piece of themselves behind in their country and they come here and become citizens and don't really give much thought to the meaning behind it. Chesterton wasn't most people and when he realized they were basically saying forget what ever you know back home, you are coming here you have to abide by these rules to become and remain an American citizen. Are you ready for that? They test this by making you fill out these papers with these question and giving an exam about the history of America to make sure you know what it means to become an American.     

In the Essay "Despite Negativity, Americans Mixed on Ideal Roles of Gov't" by Frank Newport published by Gallup Inc he writes a passage that says " These attitudes, basically unchanged from a year ago, underscore the complex nature of American's views of government. Americans have strongly negative views of the way the nation is being governed and the Congress. They also, as will be reviewed here, have significant concerns about the power of the federal government, believe that government is doing too much that individuals and business can do, and prefer fewer services and lower taxes. Yet, in a broad sense, Americans are as likely to prefer a more active government as a more limited one.

According to the study they did they gathered this data about whether our government shouldn't be very involved in our everyday lives or whether is should control or be more involved a lot more than it is now. This paragraph is about The different views about the public (citizens) when it comes to the involvement of government. Basically a large amount of the public believes Congress is doing it all wrong. They are worried about the quantity of power the government has. The public wants less taxes so they are willing to stop receiving all the luxury's the government offers in order to have more money at the end of the day and do the job themselves. For the general public a more active government is one that isn't very involved.

I felt this paragraph was important because it is important to find out what the public thinks about government. We the public are suppose to choose our Congress and our president and the population has the right to choose who we think is better for the role of government. But everyone has different views and different agenda's and that influences all of their actions.
I found the last part of the paragraph very interesting because the government does take out a lot of taxes and we don't really know exactly where that money is going. Yes we are told its going to certain places but is that entirely true?