I have long thought of the “American Dream” as one of those nice, fuzzy warm catch-phrases that helped to bolster the confidence and determination of anyone within our borders who would aspire to do great things for their families.

The “American Dream” is a farce.

Here’s the very ugly truth: those warm, fuzzy idealistic “promises” are not available to everyone, not even to those who work really hard to attain something for posterity. Determination and hard work do not guarantee success. America has ceased to be the Land of Opportunity, and I actually yawn now when those judgemental ignoramuses, who assume that the “have nots” are do-nothings on welfare, assuage their guilt by convincing themselves that laziness is the problem.

Well, I suppose they may be correct, except “laziness” in this respect actually applies to the “haves.” It is much easier for those who lack nothing to stay busy with daily affairs than take a minute to face the knowledge that many others work hard and still have nothing. Besides, in their minds, the people who make noise about the injustice are just looking for handouts, trying to steal their wealth. Right?

WRONG!

But one cannot change another’s perception so herein lies the maggot-infested, putrid fact: oppression of others comes in many forms, but it is still oppression.

I write of the type of oppression that looks at a surname on an application and decides not to interview a person for that reason only; or the type of oppression that says “Well, maybe you should get a third or fourth job so you can make the money you want, only you’ll have to let someone else raise your kids for you (daycare), and then I can call you irresponsible  for spending too much time away from your kids who need you”; and the type of oppression that sees an opportunity to do something significant and wonderful, yet chooses not to because there’s no tax break in it for them.

The crossable gap that the working poor once needed to peer across in order to fix a gaze upon home ownership or even liveable wage jobs has become a vast and widening chasm. Even some of the middle class find that the separation between the “too-comfortable” money burners and the “comfortable but careful” is widening, coming close to swallowing them up as their life’s work is given over to those who have no need for it except to satisfy greed’s insatiable appetite: businesses closing, people becoming unemployed, the business owners coming out of those disasters with a healthy retirement account and stocks they sold along the way before sticking it to the peons who worked for them.

Who says that terrorism is this country’s biggest threat? Our country is doing a great job of self-destruction. Once the poor and the middle class are voiceless, and that day is soon coming, nothing, not even the riches that’ve been earned at the expense of the “less thans,” will cause a favorable result for this nation.

© Alexa Lopez 2007