What does it mean to be an American? What was it that our military veterans sacrificed themselves for? Is it just where one is born or is there a quality or belief that can be said to be American? I ask because I thought that a fundamental part of what it means to be American is the belief that anyone willing to work hard, anyone willing to make sacrifices for their children, anyone willing to better themselves should be able to realize their dreams and should not be limited by what their fathers did or did not do. Anyone can achieve anything. Wasn’t it the dream of all who came here to build a better life for themselves and their children, whether it was in the 1700s, 1900s or even 20,000-years ago (my distant relatives crossing the Bering Strait)? And wasn’t it our belief that one of our strengths is that we are better because of our diversity? So why are we turning away some of our best and brightest? For a goddam piece of paper? “It’s the law.” Bullshit. Many of these people have contributed to what can make America great. It’s the values of sacrifice, hard work, community and family, not skin color and who your father was that is the real meaning of the American Dream.

The following video is the documentary, The Dream is Now, by Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for ‘Superman’, An Inconvenient Truth). This is a complicated problem that cannot be dismissed with simplistic sound bites. Please take the time to watch this video and consider what really makes America great is it’s people, from every walk of life, pulling together to help one another.

Resources:

http://www.thedreamisnow.org/take-action
http://www.upworthy.com/she-got-good-grades-and-planned-to-be-a-doctor-so-the-us-government-took-the-next-logical-step?c=ufb1