Cultural diary –

The Land of the Free

2022-2023

LLCER CLASS
Authored by: Louise Patenostre Peyronnie

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Theme 1: Living together
Focus 2: Individual freedoms and civil liberties
America and its political dissonance regarding its text’s promises
List of documents used

Lidocuments used

An illustration of the National hymn of the United states, by Francis Scott

Key, 1814
The founding text “Bill of rights”, James Madison, 1789
The page of the sonnet “The New Colossus”, Emma Lazarus, 1883
An image of The Great seal of the US,
The oil paintings “Four Freedoms”, by Norman Rockwell, 1943
4 photographs ‘For Freedoms’ by photographers Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur,
2018
An audio of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt ‘s 1941 “Four Freedoms”
speech
A 2020 article from the site “murfressborovoice” with the extract of “The
essential characteristics of American life” according to Rob Mitchell
An article of the Atlantic written by Ronald Brownstein on the 8th of July
2022
An article of the cole.house.gov website written by Tom Cole in May
2019
A video of DW published in 2019
An audio on The Wealth gap by CNBC from 2019
The poem “Let America be America again” by Langston Hughes
The music video of the band The Killers “Land of the free”

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My opinions about the documents

To start with, I was moved by the national hymn and appreciated re-discovering its meanings and verses, advocating
the title “Land of the free” as well as a religious nation. The same goes for The Bill of rights, which I only knew the
premises of. However, here I got to know about its detailed amendments. The 1 st and 2nd Amendment were
particularly relevant to the Unit as they address a first idea on civil rights, the fundamental ones in the first and more
specifically the possessions of firearms in the second. The new colossus brought into play the welcoming image of
the United States through a metaphor and a personification of the statue of liberty. Likewise, the great Seal of the
United States offered an addition to the symbols portrayed in the country, highlighting the aspect of a united,
solidaristic country. Indeed, the motto “El pluribus Unum” from the Latin “out of many, one” linked to the open
wings of the national bald eagle and the olive branch contribute altogether to represent freedom, peace, strength,
and power. The oil paintings of Rockwell find its contribution by introducing the fundamental freedoms : worship,
speech, fear and want. The “For Freedom” art-pieces were a great contrast for an actual version of the original
paintings: with more diversity, religions and overall inclusivity. Next, the FDR’s speech explained how he
acknowledged the work of Rockwell as inspirational and the origins of the 4 freedoms, aiming to encourage the
citizens to serve in the war. The article written by Rob Mitchell offers a first rupture between the essential freedom
that has been implemented in the US and the broadened notion that it signifies today, with a need of expansion for
minorities. Then, the article of The Atlantic is interesting for the chapter as it explains both vision of the democrats
and the Republicans towards freedom, and how they present it as a core value. The Tom Cole’s text emphasizes on
the American dream and how major free-markets are for his definition, promoting the facility to make a flourishing
business as an entrepreneur. Also, the DW video and the Wealth gap audio combined struck a social issue
concerning the Republicans’ methods: the neo-liberalists policies system, the development of the private sector, the
risk-taking ideology, and the inequalities of opportunities that arise from these latter measures resulted in a greater
and greater gap between the affluents and the poor. Lastly, the song of The Killers and the poem written by
Langston Hughes both brought a vision of ambivalence to the American Dream sold by the previous politicians,
especially when it comes to the work of minorities and to the access that the country coercively disgraces them off.

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 Additional documents

“Freedom of speech”,
Adam Zygus| editorial cartoon | 08/04/2014

This is an illustration made by Adam Zygus, published on September 29th , 2014 in the
regional daily newspaper “Buffalo News”.

This cartoon is, in my opinion, a great addition to the chapter because it touches on one of
the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the 1st amendment. With this cartoon, the notion
of free speech is highly challenged. In fact, this promise is perceived as a lie by the illustrator,
as the rich benefit from a greater range of tolerance. Indeed, the Supreme court is here
corrupted as bundle of cash falls towards its building. At the same time, the citizens are
restricted from saying what they may want to express. This could come from the fact that the
Court has consistently limited obscene speech but the problem is that this very term of
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 obscenity is decided locally, by the states. This therefore deprives certain protesters in the
south or threatens them by the weight of police brutalities, especially for people of color.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOaF8wMnVus

“Ben Shapiro Explains the Beauty of the Free Market”,

YouTube video | Ben Shapiro | 2018

This document is a Youtube video, reuploaded from the Q&A portion of Ben Shapiro’s 2018
@Young America's Foundation speech at the University of Minnesota. To set a bit more of context,
this journalist is a conservative in terms of social or economic ideas and is openly pro-free
markets, as bluntly indicated in the title.

What this biased extract brings to the chapter is a continuity to the ideal image of the free
market and to a self-regulating country, following Hoover’s past neoliberalism vision “Do
Nothing”. Moreover, a freedom that wasn’t addressed as clearly in the unit’s documents is
the association one. In this media, while answering a question, Ben lingers on the Republican
idea that the government shouldn’t interfere in people’s work of place, although more
precisely on which customer they refuse to serve. While watching this video, his arguments
could trigger the audience as he uses examples retracing the past of racial segregation.
Furthermore, he violently justifies his point trough the image of the “gay bakeries” and how
he would accepts this kind of discrimination.

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 https://time.com/6197144/gabrielle-giffords-gun-control/

“Gabby Giffords: The Big Lesson from Our

Small Progress on Guns ”,
Article | Time magazine | 14/07/2022

This last document is a rather recent article written by Gabby Giffords in

association with the magazine “Time” published on July 7th of 2022.

This piece of information is relevant to the chapter since it tackles an issue that we
worked on, namely gun restrictions legislation. In fact, this is the opinion of quite a
professional in the field, since Mrs. Giffords is a former member of the U.S. House of
representatives. Coming from the Democratic Party, it comes with fewer surprise that
she is against a completely unregulated individual choice to bear an arm. As seen
previously, the paradox resides in the fact that this very individual decision is
supported by the 2nd Amendment, but ends up in protest infringing on the freedom of
speech, itself guaranteed by the 1st one. Furthermore, outside of protests as well, this
free possession of one’s firearm is proven to be dangerously at help when involved in
terrorist attacks.
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 This extract that I chose to empathize in the picture above is particularly interesting
since it mentions the newly formed Supreme court and its newest conservative
decisions, inferred in the term “The SC overturned long established precedent”. This
part is also worth reading because it informs us on the actuality of the June 15 th
legislation and its details.

Conclusion
Some important new definitions

To ratify (a bill, an amendment, a law...):

to vote on a decision or sign a written agreement to make it official: 

realm:
either a kingdom or a domain (in expertise for example)

Time and again:

On numerous occasions
 

To surge:
To have a sudden increase

affluent:
rich

ambivalent:
something that can have two meanings

stanza:
a “strophe”
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steel:
a material, alloy of iron with carbon
to impede on:
to harm

to swirl:
to be multiplied

coercive:
uses force to impose
polarized:
divided
 

to infringe on:
to trespass on (empiéter sur..)

to yield:
to submit, to give in

My opinion about this chapter

The subjects studied in this Unit were really informative and useful
to understand the whole aspect of freedom in the United States
through it laws and official texts. Indeed, once I got the opportunity
to dive into the whole modus of the Constitution and its ten first
Amendments collected in the Bill of Rights, the political debates and
the polarization towards the most controverted topics were only
clearer. To go back to the basics, thanks to the chapter, I learned
about “The star Spangled banner” and the New colossus, both
lyrical text that were relatively new to me. To conclude, getting
crucial detailed information in regards on the pair of political U.S.
parties was challenging and deeply beneficial. In grant summary, the
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Land of the free allowed me to adopt a critical view on the dream
seen and sold so many times in movies.

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