the American Dream

The price of gas just reached another all time high. Where I live it’s hard to find octane 89 for less than $4.00 per gallon. In direct spending, the Iraq war has cost around $500 billion. Even the conservative projections see the long term cost exceeding a trillion dollars. We’ve lost the lives of over 4 thousand American soldiers. In a twisted effort to justify this immeasurable mistake, Bush is willing to sacrifice as many more soldiers as he can before leaving office. And the other day I saw a bumper sticker on a car (which was riddled with other right wing agenda stickers) which read Freedom isn’t free.

Now, I understand the point they’re trying to make with that. Never mind the fact that Iraq has NEVER been any kind of threat to our freedom — nor did they have anything to do with 9/11. But what the statement on that sticker really makes me wonder about is; does the person in that car think about that statement in a broader sense? Do they consider that overall it does in fact cost something to live in this country? And, logically so… It’s a gigantic country with what is likely the largest, most complex and efficient infrastructure of any country on earth. America quite literally is the land of opportunity and it’s a privilege to live here. Those of us who were born here tend to be the first to forget that fact. Far too many of us seem to have this completely unrealistic sense of entitlement. There’s no humility or gratitude left in the American Dream. — I want my milk and honey, on my street paved of gold! And God Damn You if you dare to TAX me for any of it!!!

You can see it on every level. In the office where I work I can overhear the phone calls of the customer service desk. The most consistent thing that I’ve observed about the complaint calls is that most people want to receive and use the product but they don’t want to pay for it.

I feel fortunate, grateful and privileged to live in America. But not so proud of it. Recent generations of Americans have done little to keep America living up to what it once was. As a nation, we find excuses to ignore environmental issues and we find excuses to condone torture. America used to have the moral fortitude to at least try to step up and set the higher standard. We've gone from being a truly respectable world leader to being an arrogant bully.

We have a long way to go, on a whole lot of levels. But as individual Americans, a nice start would be to see the American Dream rise above this arrogant belief that we’re entitled to something for nothing.