5-7-02, Voice in the Crowd
There is no American
Dream
By Pete Chaney
IPS Features
They walk across the desert in dark of night.
They cross the water from Haiti or Cuba on anything that will float.
They hide in boxcars, tractor-trailers, cargo ships, airplane luggage
areas. From all over the world,
people want to come to America—legally or illegally.
Everyone wants his or her share of the American Dream.
Is there an American Dream?
One definition of a dream is “a visionary creation of
the imagination.” To many,
that’s what the American Dream is. This
is the land of milk and honey, where streets are paved in gold. Compared to many homelands this is almost true.
But it’s not free and it’s not for everyone.
Earliest settlers came to Jamestown and to Plymouth Rock
to escape tyranny, poverty and religious persecution. Some chose the new land in Georgia rather than serve time in
debtor’s prisons. No one came
here expecting a land of milk and honey. The
settlers knew it would be tough, dangerous.
Starvation, disease, intemperate climates and hostile Indians were always
there.
There was no welcome mat waiting for these pioneers.
They fought nature; they fought the mother country of England to earn
their liberty. Our founders carved
this nation out of the wilderness with their blood and sweat. Everything
they received they had to pay for. Every
morsel of food or log in a cabin had to be earned.
Far beyond the physical prosperity, these people craved
liberty, freedom to worship as they chose, the ability to speak out freely
without fear of reprisal.
Since those early days when settlements began to move
west, paid for with lives each mile, Americans have had to fight foreign
governments jealous of the liberties we enjoyed. Our countrymen fought England, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Japan
and ideologies. We even fought each
other over whether this nation would endure or not.
The so-called dream was more like a nightmare to the
soldier in a World War I trench being bombarded, or to a GI freezing in Germany
or Korea, or sweltering in the heat of Vietnam. But they were paying the dues for the dream that others might
enjoy.
A generation ago, even visitors to America had to show
proof of being able to support themselves or have someone else ready for that
responsibility. Visas weren’t
issued without record checks. No
one just walked or sneaked in and said, “I want a job.
I want my piece of the American Dream.”
Our government gave in to big business which wanted a
plentiful supply of cheap labor. And
the face of America began to change. Dalton,
Ga., is an example. The city that
was is no more. The carpet mills’
hunger for labor has imported so many Hispanics the city is more like a Mexican
colony. Southern Florida is more
populated with Cubans and Hispanics than any other ethnic group.
Originally, immigration policy was slanted toward
northern Europeans. They were
considered preferable to their southern cousins. Orientals were either excluded or discouraged.
This gradually changed but the gates weren’t opened freely until recent
decades.
Instead of newcomers having to learn English, those here
are having to learn Spanish. Taxpayers
are having to fund special classes for Hispanic children while their wages are
being sent back to Mexico or Guatemala. Taxpayers
pay for medical treatment. If
Americans have to pay for schools and services, should not immigrant workers at
least pay their share?
We might tell Virginia there is a Santa Claus, but it is
impossible to tell new immigrants there is an American Dream, that it is a
figment of imagination as they envision it.
The so-called dream is an opportunity to go as far as
you want through hard work. But it
carries a liability. When the call
is there, the dream has to be paid for with sacrifice, sometimes life itself.
The American way of life does not belong to just one
ethnic group, one religion. It
belongs to all who have given their lives to preserve and protect it.
It is there for new immigrants coming to these shores who want to pay the
price. It has no future for the
itinerant who wants a quick buck, a free meal and a welfare system without
contributing to it.
There is no American Dream. It is a reality, but it has a price.
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