Trans-National America
 "Only America, by reason of the unique liberty of opportunity and traditional isolation for which she seems to stand, can lead in this cosmopolitan enterprise. Only the American--and in this category I include the migratory alien who has lived with us and caught the pioneer "spirit and a sense of new social vistas--has the chance to become that citizen of the world. America is coming to be, not a nationality but a transnationality, a weaving back and forth, with the other lands, of many threads of all sizes and colors. Any movement which attempts to thwart this weaving, or to dye the fabric any one color, or disentangle the threads of the strands, is false to this cosmopolitan vision. I do not mean that we shall necessarily glut ourselves with the raw product of humanity. It would he folly to absorb the nations faster than we could weave them. We have no duty either to admit or reject. It is purely a question of expediency. What concerns us is the fact that the strands are here. We must have a policy and an ideal for an actual situation. Our question is, What shall we do with our America? How are we likely to get the more creative America by confining our imaginations to the ideal of the melting-pot, or broadening them to some such cosmopolitan conception as I have been vaguely sketching?" 

     I choose the above paragraph because the author makes various interesting points in this passage. Starting with the usage of the cosmopolitan word. I believe the use of the word fits the America society perfectly. We are combined of so many different cultures, languages and people that indeed we are a cosmopolitan country. In addition, The author mentions that only America, can be a cosmopolitan enterprise because of what America stands for such as liberty. I totally agree with the author many people here have come and are coming because of the freedom this country stands for. Since America has such strong values, people tend to think of America as the only way out of their suffering. To add, the author also mentions that America cannot be viewed as a nationally anymore but instead as a transnationality.  I couldn't agree more. We should identify ourselves as a transnationality nation because of all the cultures we are involved with, the cultures from our ancestors and the cultures we will keep on gaining in the future.This nation is becoming a wave of people entering and exiting the country for various reasons.  And in my opinion it is going to take a lot of power to change this. therefore we can not just simply say we belong to one single  Lastly, he ends the passage by asking  many questions such as, "what shall we do with America and how can we shape America to this idea of the melting pot or to broadening them to a cosmopolitan conception as the author has been sketching?" In my opinion The first question "what should we do with America" has  tried to be answered, however, all the ways in which they have tried to solved this has been a failure. America will continue to be a transnationality nation as long as America is view as the land of opportunities there is not much anyone can do to stop this.

    "The difficulty with this latter statement is that it is evident from Dahl’s own account that the Notables are in fact uninterested in two of the three “key” decisions he has chosen. In regard to the public school issue, for example, Dahl points out that many of the Notables live in the suburbs and that those who do live in New Haven choose in the main to send their children to private schools “As a conse- quence,” he writes, “their interest in the public schools is ordinarily rather slight.“21 Nomina- tions by the two political parties as an impor- tant “issue-area?” is somewhat analogous to the public schools, in that the apparent lack of interest among the Notables in this issue is partially accounted for by their suburban resi- dence-because of which they are disqualified from holding public office in New Haven. In- deed, Dahl himself concedes that with respect to both these issues the Notables are largely indifferent: “Business leaders might ignore the public schools or the political parties without any sharp awareness that their indifference would hurt their pocketbooks"

     In my opinion, this passage allows the reader to comprehend how we, as a society help shape how much power an issue can have. In this paragraph Dahl explains how the educational system is not taken as a priority, instead it is the last thing people are worrying about. To add, he mentions that people who did not live in the suburb areas are sending their children to private schools. Since  it is known that these schools can provide better education, parents favor these schools and forget how bad these public school are becoming. As a parent I can understand them and honestly who could blame them, they are only trying to do what is best for their children. Since this is not affecting these families they stop worrying about it and became uninterested about the issue. However, this issue is still happening and nothing is getting better. No one in the city was fighting for things to improved instead they were finding new ways of dealing with the problems and forgetting about it. Although, private schools seem to work out for these families it is not always going to be the same. There are various other social issues that are still happening. We as a society have stopped paying attention to things that do not involve us and this is only going to hurt us in the long run. This is only allowing others to determent whether something should be a priority or not.