For most, the concept of the “American Dream” is an abstract. What it is to live a life of purpose and to achieve your desires is something deeply personal and therefore subjective. In 1931, though, American writer and historian James Truslowe Adams was able to capture the definition of the “American Dream” as succinctly as ever had been, or ever will be done before.
The American Dream is the idea that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”
On Tuesday, Donald J. Trump, an illegitimate president, announced he will rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, more commonly known as DACA. The Obama-era executive order on immigration allowed children, who entered the United States as minors, the opportunity to defer deportation for a period of two years, obtain a work visa, and give them a path to citizenship. Those children who were accepted into the program have adopted the name DREAMers.
In doing so, Donald Trump’s message to the people of the United States and abroad is clear: The ‘American Dream’ is dead.
The ‘American Dream,’ that notion that anyone can come here and create a good life for themselves and their families, is dead. America, a nation that is built by immigrants and for immigrants, is closing its doors on and ending the dreams of children, telling them that despite the fact that America is all they’ve ever know, those dreams are not welcome here.
As if Mr. Trump’s proposal to wall off Mexicans and forbid entry to Muslims were not cruel and unusual enough, he’s now set his sights on children.
This is an abomination.
Perhaps the American Dream described by Mr. Truslowe all those decades ago has been dead for a long time and we just didn’t notice. Perhaps it was obvious that the dream had died when a student borrower can be saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt merely for seeking out an advanced education, and then live under the burden of enormous insurmountable student loan payments that keep them in indentured servitude for their entire adult lives, never able to even pay down the principal.
Perhaps the dream died when the mortgage foreclosure crisis hit. Or the planes hit the twin towers. Or when we invaded Iraq.
Perhaps, for many, it died when Donald Trump assumed the White House even though his more qualified opponent won more votes.
But for today at least, we refuse to stop fighting for that ideal. This is what America was built on. To give up on this fight would be to give up on THE fight.
Bros4America stands with the DREAMers and the majority of voices to condemn this action. And we will not remain silent.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.– John Lennon, Imagine