Welcome to our final discussion for this course. Over the past few months, we have studied more than 150 years of U.S. History. We began with the efforts to reunite a war-torn nation in the era of Reconstruction. We then followed the nation’s decades of growth and expansion; its participation in numerous world wars; its economic swings through the roaring prosperity of the 1920s, the crushing hardships of the Great Depression, renewed expansion after World War II, and the recession of the 1970s. We also have seen many changes to the social fabric as a result of protests and activism, particularly in the 1960s. 
Now, we are at the present. And the question that I’d like you to consider is similar to the one we began our study with: Has the nation healed?
To explore this question, please do the following:
First, read, view, and/or listen to the following materials and review the essay you completed in M1 Assignment: A Nation Divided:

Chapter 17, U.S. History II Open Textbook
Chapter 30, The American Yawp Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook
Ground Zero, September 17, 2001
Obama, “Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney“, 2015.
Obama, State of the Union Address 2016
Trump, Donald J., The Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 2017
Baez, Joan. 

 
Play Video
Then create at least three posts, one for each prompt, that:

Compare and contrast the key policies of health care, domestic security, labor equity, immigration, racial and gender equity, and foreign affairs initiated by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump.

Please choose one of these topics, but please examine how each of the four most recent presidents approached the issue.

Re-examine the nation’s potential to heal, as reflected in the image of Ground Zero, the national addresses by presidents Obama and Trump, and the song by Joan Baez.
Conclude how the legacy of Reconstruction might be continuing to divide the nation today.