President Barack Obama's State of the Union address

"We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea, the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny... what to you want to be when you grow up? The future is ours to win."- President Barack Obama

This quote taken from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, last night, struck my attention as it significantly touched on an issue pertaining to the Industrial era, that we have been talking about lately in American Studies.

His statement that America is founded on the idea that each person deserves the chance to mold their own future is a very profound and exceptional idea, but cannot be applied in the 1800s and 1900s for immigrants.

Many of the immigrants that had come to America at that time were not able to "shape their own destiny" it was shaped for them by the industrial epoch with the exception of a few. For several, the industrialization created a world that they would be trapped in for the rest of their lives with no way out or way to change their destiny.

President Barack Obama also make a statement that was referring to children/students and how they could answer questions of how they can change the world or what they want to be when they grow up. For many immigrant children they were not even able to attend school but work in order to help their families. Many could not think of how they could change the world but instead how they could contribute to help their parents make ends meet. Nonetheless, they could think about what they wanted to be when they grew up, but most things were difficult for them to achieve especially considering the conditions they were forced in. There were only a few who could contribute to the American nation, the world, live their dreams and achieve their goals, but they were the exception.