End of an American Dream

A veteran grade school teacher began the school year like many that had gone before: assigning desks, student numbers, and passing out the obligatory ream of informational papers for the children's parents.  Finally done with organizing the class, she looks over the class and asks the simple, all-important question - the question she knows is the most important for her young students.  It will dictate their direction in life for a time as they pass from one interest and curiosity to another.  What's most important is that they begin the journey of dreaming, hoping.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" she asks.

Budding doctors; firemen; policemen; baseball, football, and basketball players; a few ice cream men; a president or two, and some astronauts are all present.

Their teacher can't help but smile.  She'll do her part to help these young dreamers.

But now at least one of those dreams is impossible.  At least one of those hopes is gone.  The great irony is that it is a direct result and comes under the presidency of a man whose winning slogan was "HOPE".


The exploration of space, the "Space Race", pulled not only the United States economy but its future through the times of despair during the Cold War.  Its been a matter of national pride for generations.


My father brought me the stickers modeled after the different Space Shuttle Missions he worked on, like these:

He brought home posters of the International Space Station, telescopes, and constellations.  We spent time looking for satellites, the space station, and dreaming.  Dreaming like humankind has dreamt for thousands of years about exploration and the greatness of the cosmos.  I was always a pretty timid kid, so I never thought about actually go up in a shuttle, but I loved them and I was proud of my Dad.

It was the era of Star Trek and Star Wars, the time of patriotic innovation, and to prove the principles that our government was founded upon.  It was an era defined by the firm resolve that life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of liberty was better than the farcical communist world regime bent of the violent overthrow of peace everywhere.                      
Even after the Cold War, as the world began again to define itself and settle into a new order of democracy, the beacon of accomplishment shone bright, a hope and reassurance that success is indeed possible.

Is that now over? The democrat party encourages domestic manufacturing production, ends the Space Shuttle program, and enslaves ethnic minorities through billions of dollars of welfare programs that serve only to make them ever more dependent on the Federal Government.

The era of hope, innovation, and success will continue only if and when the will of free men and women remains strong (Ronald Reagan).