The American Dream

Crumbling farther and farther down the economic tunnel of doom, the American Dream. A landslide of political jargon and invisible money, the American Dream. The reassurance of safety, the American Dream. What will become of the American Dream? The only thing I hear is how things have never been so bad, at least not since the Great Depression. If my junior high education serves me right, the Great Depression was...well, depressing. By 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed(http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/about.htm). Unemployment, soup lines, and foreclosures these don't sound like the kind of things that American dreams of.

My younger brother is 15 years old and is a freshman at Willard High School, a small town north of Springfield, MO. Like most 15 year old boys his life is filled with school, girls, video games, and his rock band in which he plays bass guitar. Of course being in the same room as my Father he gets his fair share of political and economic propaganda, much of which I don't agree with. And the mad hatter of television is also sowing fear into his soft mind and spirit. I wanted to know what he thought about "The American Dream". At first he was reluctant and tried to shake off the question with humor, the usual pitfall in our household. I tightened the screws on his response and he began to squeeze out one line answers. He said he was glad that he did not have to fight in wars if he did not want to. That rang a bell because that dream has not always been, in fact many have died after being sent into the battlefield by their government. He also mentioned how he did not have to worry about food or shelter as many around the world and even in this country do. He clammed up after that and became disinterested but I know his apprehension was more of a reality check of his blessing so I left him alone. It was another outlook of the American Dream that was not a tear jerker but most effective in my book.