Who is "We?"

     As I've been pondering who the "we" is so far in American history, I'm still not quite sure.  The "we" John Smith refers to is targeted at people who want to build from the ground up, pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and become successful and affluent.  The "we" John Winthrop refers to are a group of people who hold tightly to their Christian morals, who desire to create a better future for themselves, like John Smith, but desire to do so by sacrificing for others and submitting to the teaching of the church and scripture.  The "we" that Mary Rowlandson refers to are those being oppressed by the Native Americans.

     Although "we" is meant to refer to a collective group, the way that these different authors have used it has inevitably excluded people from it.  In trying to find a common ground to work off of for the common good, someone has been left out.  There is always people who do not share the same convictions and beliefs, and those who do not care for the common good but more for themselves.  This is the struggle and tension we have in America.  After reading Obama's speech on the first day of class, I couldn't help but think that the "we" he used didn't always apply to everyone.  It was a biased "we," but as I've been thinking about it, I'm not sure that there can ever be an unbiased "we."  All we can hope to do is to keep struggling to find a better and more common ground, even if we don't ever get there completely.  And now I'm going to be careful about how I use "we."