“A Europe built on competition that stimulates, cooperation that strengthens, and solidarity that unites.”
This was said by the former president of the European Union, Jaques Delors, who sought a United Europe. On this campus, many clubs exist, many of them are related to topics such as culture. We have hispanic heritage club, we possess black heritage club. I believe that a European culture club is important for school, as it would bring us closer with our cultures, it would educate students about our close allies, and it would greatly expand the cultural literacy of students.
Our shared culture is European in origin, starting this club would bring us closer to where we came from. Take the immigration of Serbians to the U.S., “he estimated number of Serbs from Dalmatia and Boka was as follows: New Orleans (300), New Mexico (300), Texas (250), Florida (200), New York (200), Philadelphia (160), Mobile (120), Washington (100), Boston (100), Louisville (50), Charleston (30), Baltimore (20)” (sapes.org). As demonstrated by the numbers, many people have Serbian heritage from all around the U.S. and many don’t know about it. By creating this club, we can help people connect to their long lost ancestry, and teach them about customs and traditions they never thought they had. Eastern European ancestry also exists, though many people don’t even know this country exists.
For example, did you know many Fins immigrated to America, “At the turn of the 20th century, Finnish immigration exploded. The decades of struggle for Finnish independence from Russia were at a boiling point, and Finns fled the instability in their homeland at a breathtaking rate. Between 1890 and 1914.more than 200,000 Finns arrived, two-thirds of total Finnish immigration to that point, and more than 30,000 followed before immigration was curtailed in 1924.” (loc.gov) As you can see, many Fins came to America, and nobody is aware of their ancestry. Most people can’t even pin Finland on a map! If we had a European culture club, people would be encouraged to investigate their ancestry, who knows, maybe many Californians come from Fins. These countries are also our biggest allies.
The European Culture club would educate our students about our close allies. Our economic relations say enough, “The transatlantic relationship is a key artery of the world economy. Together, the European Union and the US represent almost 30% of global trade in goods and services and 43% of global GDP (expressed in USD). The EU and the US have the world’s most integrated economic relationship.” (consilium.europa.eu) When we share 43% of the world’s GDP and 30% of all global trade together, you can start to understand the extent of our alliance by this number. However most Americans can’t even identify EU states, “Survey: 44% Of Americans Can’t Correctly Spot Countries in The EU.” (eitas.com) This club would supplement this blind spot, and introduce Americans to the countries of Europe, the alliances in Europe, and the history of Europe, we’d grow closer to our allies.
This would greatly expand the cultural literacy of Americans through this club. America’s cultural literacy isn’t the greatest, “A new survey commissioned from Gallup by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Geographic Society (NGS) finds that adult Americans exhibit gaps in their knowledge about geography and world affairs. Respondents answered just over half of the knowledge questions correctly, and only 6 percent got at least 80 percent of the questions right.” (cfr.org) With this club we can make this gap smaller, by educating them about our closest allies. This club would fix this problem by giving them valuable knowledge about our American allies, expanding their knowledge of different cultures.
In conclusion the European culture club would seek to fix the problems plaguing our fair nation. That of heritage, alliances, and cultural knowledge. However, there is still a problem, we need someone to start this club. We need a person to take the initiative to make this club, and we need a leader to properly organize it. So will you be a lousy lad, or will you be a man?
