Watching television Monday night, I found myself switching back and forth between a rainy World Series game, Fox News and CNN. Like the rain dripping from the frame of the catcher's mask, the rhetoric of voices began to puddle together: "McCain predicts a victory ... the umpires will have to call this game because of the conditions ... Obama is speaking tonight in one of the swing states ... the rain is coming down harder ... the Dow closed at another loss today."

I was watching the game again when the camera framed a dejected Phillies fan, standing in a slicker, sopping wet and cold, with disappointment in his eyes. And then it hit me: What I was watching and hearing was all about the American Dream.

Between the brackets of the baseball game and the presidential election rested the engine of economy that is driving both our collective vision of the future and our individual ambition for that dream.

But what is the American Dream?

The phrase was defined in a history book from 1931 when James Truslow Adams wrote, "If, as I have said, the things already listed were all we had to contribute, America would have made no distinctive and unique gift to mankind. But there has been also the American Dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement."

But the dream is much older than that. Did it not begin when the first human stepped across the frozen north in search of sustenance? Was it not in the squint of the lookout on the ship Columbus sailed, sighting land for the first time? Was it not in the promise from European investors who encouraged people to sail to the New World, to a land of plenty and opportunity?

This dream was fueled by the quest for religious freedom, free land and riches awaiting any who were brave and strong enough to seize hold. Even the Native Americans were forced to relinquish their corporate dreams in the tidal wave of pilgrims and pioneers who marched across this continent.

The dream echoes in the documents handed to us by the founders of our nation: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It greeted the immigrant to our shores, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." It marched with the orders of John B.L. Soule, "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." It has defined every generation since.

Throughout history, that dream has been shaped and reshaped by the struggle of those who were denied access to the dream. Slavery, the right of women to vote, access to education and class distinctions have marked bitter chapters in our history as one version of the dream clashed with another. The dream gave us the blessed gift of the G.I. Bill and the nightmare of the KKK and race riots. It spun Neil Armstrong to the moon and enmeshed us in Watergate. It gave us the miracle of open heart surgery and the nuisance of televangelists.

But watching that soggy baseball game, I could not help but wonder if the American Dream is still alive, still valid. Was it for me? And what role would that dream really play this coming Tuesday as we cast our ballots?

In his book The American Dream; a Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation, Jim Cullen concludes that the dream "ends with people who long to achieve dreams without having to make any effort at all."

Unlike our parents and grandparents, and all those before them, what real labor, what real sacrifice has a generation blessed really made? I've never lived in a home without a television, a car, running water and electricity. My children have never lived in a home without multiple televisions, air conditioning, computer access and their own car.

We used to model our dreams after heroes because of their character and integrity, their leadership and wisdom. In their place are celebrities, and the dream is about what you have and what you have defining who you are.

I wonder, without inviting some anti-patriotic accusation toward myself, if it is time for a new American Dream that would guide us as a people. A new corporate word, conscience and vision of what it is we should be dreaming of and hoping for. Not a dream about bigger and better, more and much, but a dream wherein the measurement of one's success is in light of the "many's" success. A dream that is about valuing others ahead of the self, a dream that is not determined by the stock market, but rather by the market of human hearts. A dream that is immune to the rhetoric of elections and politicians.

It is really not a new dream I propose, nor is it unique. It is God's dream: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

* The Rev. Matt Idom is pastor of First United Methodist Church of Bryan.

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2 comment(s) found!

Posted by: shea On: 11/2/2008

Comment Title: Who are you talking about?
According to Jim Cullen, "the American Dream ends with people who long to achieve dreams without having to make any effort at all." I have never worked harder, or for less. He must be talking about the CEOs and upper management types. I think the culprits are CEOs who are running their companies into the ground and bringing down record busting salaries, at the expense of low level employees who have never been more productive, and haven't seen their contributions to the bottom line compensated accordingly. For instance, I clean hotel rooms. The housekeeping staff has been ask to clean 2 more rooms per shift, from 16 to 18, a 12.5% increase in productivity, or risk being let go. Yet I have only received a $0.27 raise in the last 3 years. Meanwhile our CEO has made millions. I'm not saying that CEOs should be paid like paupers, but it is unfair to give top brass everything and low level employees nothing. The American Dream is not what it used to be because there is no guarentee that your labor will adequately provide for your family. My father, a union millwright, was frugal, but he managed to keep his family fed, clothed and doctored too. My husband and I both work long and hard, we have disconnected the cable, and the land line, our trac phones do nicely at a fraction of the cost of cell phones. We planted a security garden in our back yard, can and put by as much food as possible. My daughter has never had a holiday that was not a hard candy Christmas. If prosperity ever does come back to our hungry hollow neighborhood, I don't believe that we will ever go back to the commercialized Christmases that I knew as a child. I can't remember the last time I bought a latte, and I desperately need new underwear. It feels like deprivation to me, I know that you can't have everything, but I used to feel like I could have everything that I needed, and that I would be able to handle anything that came my way. This year we are discussing whether or not to let our insurance go, because we cannot afford the routine medical costs, with our $10,000 deductible, and the premiums. So far we have been healthy and lucky, if something happens, we will go bankrupt at the very least, and we will die at worst. Retirement for either me or my husband is out of the question. Our 401Ks have lost so much. There is no pension plan available, as there was for my dad. And there is no way we can save enough, despite our thrifty ways. If my husband were to die, I don't know what me and my daughter would do. I want to urge your readers to vote. I have already voted for Obama, because I feel a vote for McCain will just let our wealth spread further up the class ranks, and let our economy sink down further. Frankly I believe if our government were 10 times more bloated than it is there would not be enough pork to cut to recover economic prosperity. The American Dream may well be over, but not because of Middle and working class slackers. More because of the greed and extravagence of the wealthiest class, the stupid policies of the neoconservatives and republicans. I'm surprised that President Bush didn't suggest we shop our way out of this "economic disruption."

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Posted by: Bob Knight On: 11/2/2008

Comment Title: Do we need a new American Dream?
A very well written article.

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