The news photo was of a large sandwich board that read, The American Dream is Dead... Ask yourself, is it? The dream is not about money, nor the economy, nor terrorists, and those things cannot kill the dream.

This is how I know. My husband, after he was let go from the company that defined him for 10 years, calmly moved forward.  He would say, "It was a good ride." After he was let go, he continued to go through the motions of working there for a few days because the weekend held a special event for "his guys".  He did not want to cast a pall on "their day" because he knew how hard they had all worked and how much they deserved the day. Had he immediately left, the guys would have not been able to enjoy it the same way. He did not take a demotion because even if he could stomach the ego blast of it, he knew that would mean someone else or even two others could be let go instead of him, and he had seen enough guys (and girls) let go.

Now, 3 years later, this man gets up and leaves before dawn every day and goes to work for less than half his old earnings, has helped in a large part to keep his new construction based company in the black even with the slowdown, and this amazing person comes home every night with a smile on his face. He is ready for the next challenge.

He just won't let that dream go...he believes in the idea. If things look bleak, get moving. Make something, or make something happen. "What are you going to do today", he would say to you and I.

The American Dream is Alive and Well and it sleeps in my house each night. He shares a worldview with each and every person who refuses to let the sum of each problem and the drudgery of each day weigh him down to immobility. Five people rest easy in our house thanks to the american dream and our faith in it. We know just how alive it really is.