New Year, New Opportunities?

Since its founding, the United States has been a land of opportunity. Immigrants came in hoards looking for a new fresh start, a chance to leave the past behind and make a better future. Not much has changed in the past 200 years, as I find myself thinking of what New Year’s Resolution I will make. I always consider the New Year to be a chance to improve myself and my life, even if it may be less drastically than immigrants who are moving to turn over a new leaf. 

Is America a land of opportunity for all though? In my American Studies class, we recently finished reading A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Ironically enough, I sometimes believe that Douglass too, a slave from his birth in 1818 until 1838, also believed America was a land of opportunity despite being treated harshly and put down by his white slave owners for so long. On page 38, Douglass says that his worst master of all time, Mr. Covey, "succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit". Douglass was still American just like his slave owners even though he was black, but from his description of being mentally defeated by Mr. Covey, it does not seem like he felt America was the land of opportunity. 

When Douglass reached the North though, he was able to further his education and speak publicly about abolition and try to bring freedom to those who were still enslaved. Douglass was just one example of someone in history denied opportunities for a better life. Despite the passage of time, some people still lack opportunity. Poverty is widespread throughout all of America. There is a major lack of opportunity for people in poverty to escape it and live a better life. 

So what do you think- is the United States a land of opportunity for everyone? Does everyone deserve the chance to turn over a new leaf with the new year?