Unequal Treatment

If you consider the history of this country and try to decide what America is you might have a problem.

We have always had divisions between different world outlooks and even erupted into a deadly civil war because of them.

Are we in fact a melting pot or is a better analogy a buffet line of different choices?

From the very beginning the issues relate to the amount of power that should be invested in the Federal Government.

This is still the fundamental issue.

Are we a collection of 50 states with some shared interests or are we a single nation?

The answer is not clear.

Take education, something that we have historically treated as a local matter. However we switched it to a more national issue during the civil rights era as we realized not all citizens were being treated equally.

Recently we have seen some reversal of this allowing less federal oversight.

Should every citizen of this country be provided the same rights and opportunities or should it vary based on where you live?

If each State sets different standards it will obviously vary significantly.

Take creationism, a religious theory that is not based on any actual scientific evidence but espoused in bible.  Should it be taught as an alternative to evolution, a scientific theory that is nearly universally agreed to?

It really wasn't that long ago that unequal treatment was a routine thing in many states.

Has it in fact gone away?