As another Fourth of July rolls around we are faced, as we are every year, with a raft of questions and criticisms because we are not what some individuals or groups think we should be. Imagine that, a man-made political concept and it’s not perfect and does not make everyone happy!
The American Dream is still the great experiment; we just got started 240 years ago, and the Roman Empire (remember them?) lasted more than 500 years. The truth is that we have had some great natural advantages and, above all, that has given us essential breathing space so we could, and did, make some really serious mistakes and still manage to survive them.
We also had the advantage of two excellent foundations, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, on which to build.
These are unique bottoms-up documents and the great Mark Steyn used them to define America many years ago, (paraphrasing): the first words of the U.S. Constitution are We, The People. The first words of the European Constitution are We, the people who know better than you, the little people.
If it ever comes to the latter, the American Dream is gone. We Americans try to walk the impossibly fine line between what’s good for us collectively and what’s good for us individually, and that’s why the American Dream is worth believing in.
And what is the American Dream? How should I know. It’s your dream which really is the secret sauce; everyone gets to have their own. There is only one unbreakable rule: You have to believe in it and since it’s yours, that should be easy.
Happy Fourth of July and God bless America; I love it, warts and all.
Marty Richman, Hollister