Whatever happened to "The Land of Opportunity"?

Originally posted by GeorgiaGirl
I have grown up with the idea that America is the Land of Opportunity. I've always felt that we have amazing opportunities here, and by working hard, we can realize "The American Dream."

I don't agree with the mindset that America is no longer the Land of Opportunity.

If you label groups of individuals as victims, reward them with special status under the law, pander to their wants and provide for their needs long enough they will start to believe it, then they will start to accept it and then to expect it from others.

This is why most people fail to make their dream in America - they believe they are a victim of some kind therefore will always be one. The victim of their own self pity.

Take any hard working notable individual from America's past and he will succeed today as well. Why? Because while we all may be born into a circumstance and that of some is a lot worse than that of others - we do not have to chose be a Vitim of it.


I grew up in a family of the rural poor - neither of my parents to whom I was born in their teens finished High School. They worked retail and manual labor respectively, never encouraged me to pursue education and one was basically the town drunk. We never had more than one car, and lived in a craptastic two bedroom shanty. I wore clothes from the goodwill store and ate a lot of government cheese.

I joined the Army as a Private more than 24 years ago and recently retired as a Major serving in Special Forces and Military Intelligence along the way. I own 40 acres of land fee and clear have a successful dairy operation and support both of my parents and my wife's sister. Anything is possible with hard work.

It's sitting beside Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean hahahaha