Over the last week, at both party’s conventions, there was one common theme.

Well…Sort of common theme.

Let’s say that the title of the theme was the same and leave it at that since that is where similarities ended.

That theme was…”The American Dream.”

Both parties talked about it. Both said they were for it.

It seems however, that they have two very different definitions OF it.

I suggest that to understand the “American Dream,” we need to step back from today’s contentious discourse.

From a literary standpoint, the tear, “American Dream” was made popular in 1931 in a book written by James Truslow Adams but, it’s not the origin of the phrase.

To find its origin as a written or spoken phrase, one must read Ben Franklin’s autobiography.

Clearly though, before something like that can be written, it must be conceived of and it’s quite possible, that concept began with the Pilgrims who longed for a land where they could worship as they saw fit.

America was accessible though far from their homelands, it offered security from their overbearing governments and it was a place from which they could have a new beginning.

It was dangerous. It was uncertain. Why…The trip TO America could kill you. There were no guarantees but there was…opportunity.

Eventually, the government control the Pilgrims had fled caught back up to them and again, rather than charting their own course and their own destiny, those who had sought freedom were again…Subjects.

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