Only in America

I think that every male child from my generation was told that he could grow up to be the president someday, if he wanted it bad enough and worked really hard. The next generation of females was hopefully told the same thing. Only in America do parents give their children this dream of becoming anything they want if only they work hard enough for it. Background doesn’t matter. Socio-economic status doesn’t matter. Conceivably, gender doesn’t matter. Anyone has the potential to be the president if they really work hard enough to achieve it.

Our national presidential election is less than a week away. One of the candidates must believe in this American Dream. "Here in America, destiny is not written for us. It is written by us," declared the 47-year-old candidate. Barack Obama, with mixed race and mixed religion, is close to becoming the next president of the United States. At a recent Virginia rally, the theme was “Only in America,” where a song by Brooks and Dunn was played in the background. The words to the song echoed the crowd’s enthusiasm. "One kid dreams of fame and fortune. One kid helps pay the rent," the country music duo's lyrics say. "One could end up going to prison. One just might be president."

No matter what your politics are or who you plan to vote for, you have to admit that we live in a great country. This is a place where you don’t have to have royal blood or a family name to be the head of the country. Every citizen has the right to vote for the candidate of their choice. Elections are not fixed, and ballot boxes aren’t stuffed. People are not intimidated to cast their vote for their candidate preference based on their own platforms and policies.

I asked my husband his opinion on the upcoming election, and he gave me a political dissertation. I don’t agree with his choice of candidates, but the point is that I am free, even as a woman and wife to make my own choice when I cast my vote next week.

I don’t want to sound overly patriotic, but this really is a great place to live.


Dart, Bob. "Obama's life story echoes "Only in America" theme."The Daily Reflector
10262008 29 Oct 2008 life-story-echoes-only-in-america-theme-204083.html>.