The American Dream - we're losing it

My husband was channel surfing the other night and he flipped to "The Rookie."

Remember that movie from 2002?  In it, Dennis Quaid plays Jim Morris, a teacher who makes a deal with his students.  If they win the championship, he will try out for major league baseball.

Of course, the kids win, and Morris tries out.  The part that struck me, though, was when he started to give up hope.  Morris laments to his coach that he is making $600 a month (traveling with a minor league team, those people don't make any money) and hasn't seen him family all summer.  The coach says that he can go home, no one blames Morris.  He tried, right?

Morris' wife urges him to continue playing baseball.  Morris thinks about it and decided to keep playing.  I am not sure how long this took in real life, but in Hollywood time, 5 minutes later, Jim Morris was called up to the big leagues.

This is the American dream - with enough hard work, sacrifice and commitment, you can achieve anything.

Do you still believe that?  I am not sure if I do anymore.

In just a few short years, we have gone from a country of workers, dreamers and do-ers to a country of whiners, complainers and gender studies majors.

It all started with a president who panders to the grievance industry and doesn't understand boo about the way that the world really works.

Sitting around complaining about what you have, looking at what other people have and taking it, well, that is just wrong.  It doesn't matter how popular it is or how many people are for it, it is wrong and it seriously hurts the people who do it.

Why would we tell one person that he or she can live the American dream and then tell another person that he or she CAN'T because he or she isn't capable of working hard and achieving his or her dreams?

Telling some people that they should live off the government because they can't succeed on their own is cruel.  It completely undermines the person's ability and props him or her up in comfortable poverty.

It makes me sad.

Be a dreamer.  Be a do-er.  Be a hard worker.

Not a gender studies major.