United States
Flags of the United States line both side of a road.
“The diversity of America is a strength of the country, and I don’t think that we use that. We don’t talk about our strengths. I mean, having so many diverse people in this country from all aspects of all over the world, and we don’t use that. I think we should talk about who we are – that melting pot that we’ve become.”
–Steve Stoute
The lyrics in the anthem America the Beautiful expresses it best–the United States of America really is beautiful.
O beautiful for spacious skies…For amber waves of grain…For purple mountain majesties…Above the fruited plain!…America! America!…God shed His grace on thee…And crown thy good with brotherhood…From sea to shining sea!
The United States really is a beautiful and wonderfully diverse country. When you travel to each of the 50 States and even within each State you will feel as if you’re traveling to another country.
The United States is a country built by immigrants and each corner of this country is influenced by a variety of cultural diasporas including former enslaved people from Africa and the West Indies. Even traces of Native American culture can be found despite earlier efforts to erase them from the narratives of American history.
The United States has not always been the land of the free but it has always been the home of the brave.
As Paul Tsongas said, “America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.”
I’ll never forget the bright blue skies as I watched an airplane fly into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001.
The city of El Paso, Texas has a rich historical and cultural role that is reflected in the countries of the United States and Mexico.
In 1865, white settlers in California killed more than 40 Native Americans in what has become known as the Three Knowles Massacre. The remnants of the Yahi tribe fled into the forest and hid. For the next forty years, the last of the Yahi lived in the woods and gradually died off. On August 29, 1911, a group of farmers found an Indian near one of their barns. He was arrested and taken into town. He spoke no English. He was taken to San Francisco to the Museum of Anthropology. There, an astute researcher determined his language was a Yahi dialect. They gave him the name "Ishi" as the Indian would not speak his own name. Ishi is an adopted name that translates to "man" in Yana. He was given this name by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber because it was customary for him to remain silent about his own name until [...]
Kansas City, founded in 1838 (the Missouri side), is a city that has a full and rich history for being in the mellow Mid-West region of the United States.
In a city as teeming with life as New York, it should come as no surprise that there is a similarly populous world six feet under the five boroughs. With so many tourist attractions, New York City’s cemeteries are rarely on most visitors’ top ten lists, but the sheer size of many NYC graveyards, not to mention their famous residents and historic structures, make them some of the city’s most lovely green spaces, despite their morbidity.
Step back in time as you walk through Old Alabama Town—a living history museum that reflects late 19th and early 20th century life along six-blocks of downtown Montgomery. Within the six-block radius of Old Alabama Town you can visit 50 recreated buildings that reflect the time and see the “residents and workers” going about everyday lives of their era.
“What could it mean?” was crossing my mind as I carefully tried to interpret the engravings covering an entire wall of fiery red sandstone within the Valley of Fire State Park (Nevada, USA). It was 10 AM, and I found myself standing on a metal platform in front of a huge rock formation, illustrating carvings of an ancient civilization that dates back to a time way before the common era.
On your next trip, bring natural history to life with a dinosaur encounter! The U.S. offers many attractions where you can view dinosaur fossils—or even participate in a dino dig.
Back in 1890, when much of New York's northernmost borough, the Bronx, remained undeveloped, a French immigrant was charged with laying out the then rural area's street grid.
The Let the World See exhibit tells both Emmett’s story but also illuminates the courage of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who insisted on an open casket funeral for her son so that the world could see the brutality of his senseless murder. Her act fueled a movement that changed the nation.
St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia is filled with history. Its newest museum, the World War II Home Front Museum, gives a different view of the war from typical accounts.
It is no secret to anyone that tourism is a major industry and draw for Charleston, South Carolina. However, on my most recent visit, I became a fan of their county parks because of one particular experience. I visited MacLeod Plantation Historic Site.
