It is an "Election Year" and listening to all gloom and doom, and how bad Government is, and how we want Government to take care of everything, I came across "How To Keep The American Dream Alive!
As a German American who came to this wonderful country many years ago, I like to remind everyone who reads this, to appreciate what we have, and not always complain what we don't have.
This is still the Greatest Country in the World!
If we are to keep the American Dream alive and awaken its greatness, we must rekindle the spirit of our nation's past. While many of the unalienable rights entrusted to us under the Declaration of Independence may be taken for granted today, that was not the case for 65 men who signed that noble document. Overall, they were men of deep faith and many were prosperous members of the colonial elite. These people patriots courageously signed the Declaration understanding that their property could be confiscated and, if capured, they could face execution.
Many paid a harsh price for their patriotism. Nearly one-third had their estates destroyed. Unfamiliar signers of significant wealth like Carter Braxton and Richard Morris supported the Revolutionary War with their own assets and died in relative povery. Other men of financial means such as Richard Stockton and Arthur Middleton, who were taken prisoners by the British, likewise lost all that they had after their release. The price of the war forced John Hart to flee from the bedside of his dying wife. When he returned home after the war, he found his wife dead, his property destroyed, and his 13 children gone.
These brave signers lived with a spirit that transcends all religious faiths and carried out with honor the last line of the Declaration of Independence: "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
America became a great nation precisely because its early settlers exhibited great character. For them the American Dream was lived out seeking Devine Providence and pledging all that they had, believing that freedom and liberty were virtues worth living and dying for. They emptied themselves and, in many cases, laid down their lives and posessions for a neighbor they most likely didn't know.
Our Founding Fathers believed that the American Dream depended upon the strength of the caracter of its many diverse individuals. They understood that the creator, who gave us our unalienable rights, requires virtue as the price for freedom and liberty. Liberty for them was not doing what they impulsively wanted to do, but finding the courage to do what they needed to do after careful deliberation.
For our Founding Fathers, America was an emerging market economy, and capitalism just a babe. If they could come back today, they most likely would be amazed by the financial capital that America has amassed in a little more than 200 years. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't be troubled by the low level of spiritual capital found in the American Dream today.
Thank you for reading, if you feel like I do, please leave me a comment
Posted By Ingrid Dreyer
www.personal-development-growth.com
