American Culture...or not?

Today in class, we had a discussion about America and whether we have our own unique, defined culture. Originally, on my outline, I said that American culture was not unique and that we borrowed from cultures all around the world which contributed to our diversity. And that still is true. America is a melting pot of all different ethnicities, races, religions, and cultures. America is so diverse, going from east to west or north to south you can see those differences. But this does not mean that America does not still have its own unique culture, that combines all of the other cultures that exist in America. In class, we determined that America focuses on success, efficiency, materials, competition to be the best, fairness, and freedom. Some of these are good, and others are not. Sometimes our focus on success and being the best gets out of control. We need to take a step back and work together and cooperate sometimes. Also the materialism isn't so great. We are way to focused on the durable goods and need to not expect to get everything we want. But, the freedom, efficiency and fairness are good qualities of America's unique culture. These aspects of American culture can be applied to my life. I'll admit it, I do sometimes get carried away in competitions. Even in intramural sports like flag football here at school can get very competitive. During my sophomore year, there was a very close game with another team, and we all got really into it when we could've just played for fun and not gotten competitive to avoid arguments. Also, I can relate to the freedom and fairness. We take for granted what we have without having to work for it or anything. We can basically do anything we want at anytime, not counting illegal activities. Not all countries and cultures have this, they make have much stricter laws preventing certain actions. All in all, even though America is a melting pot of many different cultures, all of those cultures come together to create America's unique culture.