by Henry Piarrot

Created on: June 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

I am an American

I am the grandson of a Choctaw Indian man who married a German woman and a Frenchman that married a Mexican senorita. After explaining this to a young college student in Nashville about a decade ago, she looked at me totally perplexed and asked, Well, if there was a world war, which would you fight for? Once the shock of her bizarre question subsided, I replied, I am an American.

A couple of years later, a young history major came to my tavern one afternoon proclaiming that his professor presented undisputable evidence to his class that the American Dream was nothing more than a myth. He added, "The American Dream was simply a ruse devised by the ruling class to keep the poor working to make the rich richer with no real hope of actually becoming rich themselves." Once I digested the potential harm of the lesson to a seeming bright individual, I suggested to him that he return to school the next day and quit. After all, you are going to college because you have a dream that requires credentials. I said, "If yours is an impossible dream, why go through the pain and sacrifice earning a degree? Do your parents a favor and stop wasting their money. They worked hard for it."

Life did not allow me to go to college and for many years as a young adult, I thought I had missed out. However, I am an American and when his crazy professor angrily came to see me the next day to scold me for poisoning the mind of his student, I realized what I had missed most was the brainwashing of some who place their politics above the futures of their students. Needless to say, I sent that so called educator back to his office with his tail between his legs.

Searching for freedom of religion after having been persecuted for their beliefs, the American Dream was first sought by those who left everything they had and risked their lives to find it. Ultimately, terrible living conditions in Europe and the hope for political freedom in America attracted more brave people to journey to the New World. But, I am an American today because historians, poets and patriots proclaimed truths that are self-evident and the armies of tyrants were no match for the forces of liberty.

James Truslow Adams first put the American Dream to words in his 1931 book The Epic of America. He wrote, "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream

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