A Land of Opportunity

As a Reminder I am covering these topics:

1. A Land of Opportunity (Current Topic)
2. The Economy - 1
3. The Economy -2
4. Energy
5. National Security
6. Education
7. My Experience with an Election for "Change" in 1970
8. The Change We Need
9. Growth, Challenges, and Choices

One of the greatest things about our Country, the United States of America, is the freedom and opportunity it provides. There is no question the inspired leaders established a constitution that provides great benefits to all of its citizens. The opportunity available to succeed here, which is why so many around the world want to come here, is legendary. This has occurred over the entire history of the country. Is life perfect for all it's citizens? No! It never has been and never will be. Are all of the citizens perfect? No! But life here, opportunity here, and the living standard here is currently as good or better than anywhere else on earth. Because it is so good here we, as Americans, have taken it all for granted.

During the National Conventions for both parties recently, I heard over and over from individual candidates how they have lived the American Dream.

Barack Obama

My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.

While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised a baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

They shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.

Joe Biden

My dad -- my dad, who fell on hard times, always told me, though, "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up. Get up." I was taught -- I was taught that by my dad. And, God, I wish my dad was here tonight.

And when I got -- when I got knocked down by guys bigger than me -- and this is the God's truth -- she sent me back out and said, "Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day." And that's what I did.

You know -- and after the accident, she told me, she said, "Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear." And when I triumphed, my mother was quick to remind me it was because of others.

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith and to treasure our families. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they just try hard enough. That was America's promise.

And for those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream.

John McCain

When I was growing up, my father was often at sea, and the job of raising my brother, sister and me would fall to my mother alone. Roberta McCain gave us her love of life, her deep interest in the world, her strength, and her belief we are all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our country. I wouldn’t be here tonight but for the strength of her character.

Sarah Palin

My Mom and Dad both worked at the elementary school in our small town.

And among the many things I owe them is one simple lesson: that this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity.

My parents are here tonight, and I am so proud to be the daughter of Chuck and Sally Heath. Long ago, a young farmer and habber-dasher from Missouri followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency.

I grew up with those people.

They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America ... who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars.

They love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.

Based upon my experience, which I have in common with these candidates, I could have been a candidate also.

Dennis Barrett

I grew up in a small town in Idaho (Pocatello) with Parents with little means who scraped out a living for their family. My Father, a school teacher, coach and president of the Teachers Union, had struggled all his adult life to make the living including having to take extra jobs to support the family he loved. My Mother saved money at home by cutting our hair, sewing most of our clothes (something that at the time was a little embarrassing). When I was 12, my father, after experiencing a prolonged and worsening sense of heartburn, discovered that he had an advanced case of Pancreatic Cancer and had 3 months to live. After his death my Mother and I lived on Social Security benefits for survivors for a couple of years while she went back to school to become a Nurse. My family did not have the resources for me to go to college, but I never considered that I would not. I went to work and all through my college days, I worked to pay for my education. Without my Father I was not very informed. I probably could have qualified for financial aid, but never did take advantage of it. Even after getting married and having two children, I finished school working full time making cookies on the graveyard shift as a Keebler Elf and going to school full time. I then went to work in the Oil Industry as an Accountant, worked hard, and took advantage of every opportunity, including changing careers to business consulting management for an international software company.

There are thousands or millions like me in the US. There are numerous recent immigrants from places all over the world that have come to the US to seek opportunity and have succeeded even beyond what I have done, yet there are those that say the American Dream is dead, and one can not raise them selves up.

What I don't understand is how people who themselves have taken advantage of the opportunities and worked to raise themselves from nothing to a level of admired achievement can then turn around and say how broken the country is and that the Government must take care of us if we are to succeed. After exclaiming on one hand how this great country has provided them the opportunity to be who they have become, they then turn around and blame, cast dispersions on , and deride the same country and system that allowed them to be great. It is as if they think that the only reason they accomplished what they have is because they are something extraordinary rather than the country providing them extraordinary opportunities that are not available in most of the world.

The same programs and more, that these leaders used to pull themselves up along with the same hard work and personal responsibility that I and they applied still is in effect in the USA; if you are not told that you can't by someone who is supposed to know.