Laura Menzel Blog #4: We are citizens

"We may do different jobs and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title -- we are citizens. It’s a word that doesn't just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe."

--President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, February 12, 2013 

In President Obama's State of the Union Address, he closed with the sentiment "we are citizens".   Reflecting on this, I wondered what exactly united us.  One of the many things the president address was the need for stricter immigration laws and a reformed path to citizenship.  This led me to "Twilight" and the L.A. riots and the question, who is the enemy?  In Anderson's "Imagined Communities", he discusses the importance of "the relationship between the masses and the missionaries of nationalism" (Anderson, 80).  In order for revolutions to be successful, the revolutionaries had to appeal to the oppressed masses, for there is strength in numbers.  During a revolution, the ruling class was made the enemy.  With the revolution over, the oppressed masses still look to the ruling class as the enemy.  However, because they are the lowest in the hierarchy, they have no voice, and with the revolution over, they have no revolutionaries to speak for them.  The subaltern must therefore look for other ways to speak, often with violent consequences.