Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address: Divided We Stand
Gottschalk 1
Megan Gottschalk
Mr. Defilippo
AP US Government & Politics
16 April 2015
Divided We Stand
In Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, he stated, “ If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide”. This indicates that America’s downfall would not come from outsiders, but from rather internal forces. Only the American people could destroy the country. Another famous quote on this topic comes from Aesop: “United we stand, together we fall”. Combining these two quotes, America can only fall apart at the seams by people dividing. In his latest book, E.J. Dionne expresses the idea that Americans can’t come together …show more content…
Older adults say they could get a job by just asking. Now, just to get a low-paying job, you need a college-
Gottschalk 14
degree from a respectable university, letter of recommendations, previous job experience, and more. The first problem with that is how unattainable college is. For example, in
1940, Yale, one of the top colleges in the world, cost $50 a year to attend. Then, in 1980, the private university had a cost of attendance that ranged between $10,000-$12,000 per year. In the 2016 school year, the cost will be $63,250. In the golden age of the American
Dream, anyone that worked hard enough could attend college. That $50 equals around
$800 now, yet you could pay off your debts after around 1 or 2 years of working. College is only for the rich or those willing to spend the rest of their lives in debt to the government; “Some 77% of students from wealthy families earned bachelor 's degrees by age 24 in 2013, compared to only 9% of those from poor families, a new report has found… The study defines the wealthy as having family incomes above $108,650, while the poor earned less than $34,160,” (Luhby 1). It is pivotal in today’s society to have
Megan Gottschalk
Mr. Defilippo
AP US Government & Politics
16 April 2015
Divided We Stand
In Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, he stated, “ If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide”. This indicates that America’s downfall would not come from outsiders, but from rather internal forces. Only the American people could destroy the country. Another famous quote on this topic comes from Aesop: “United we stand, together we fall”. Combining these two quotes, America can only fall apart at the seams by people dividing. In his latest book, E.J. Dionne expresses the idea that Americans can’t come together …show more content…
Older adults say they could get a job by just asking. Now, just to get a low-paying job, you need a college-
Gottschalk 14
degree from a respectable university, letter of recommendations, previous job experience, and more. The first problem with that is how unattainable college is. For example, in
1940, Yale, one of the top colleges in the world, cost $50 a year to attend. Then, in 1980, the private university had a cost of attendance that ranged between $10,000-$12,000 per year. In the 2016 school year, the cost will be $63,250. In the golden age of the American
Dream, anyone that worked hard enough could attend college. That $50 equals around
$800 now, yet you could pay off your debts after around 1 or 2 years of working. College is only for the rich or those willing to spend the rest of their lives in debt to the government; “Some 77% of students from wealthy families earned bachelor 's degrees by age 24 in 2013, compared to only 9% of those from poor families, a new report has found… The study defines the wealthy as having family incomes above $108,650, while the poor earned less than $34,160,” (Luhby 1). It is pivotal in today’s society to have