Hope and the American Dream

Above all, what is playing throughout the Democratic Convention is a sense of hope, that we still can have the American Dream!

DENVER - Gov. Deval Patrick brought his powerful personal story to the Democratic convention stage last night in a speech that used his struggles and successes as proof that quality education can turn lives around.

“I grew up in poverty on the South Side of Chicago. I went to violent and sometimes overcrowded public schools,” Patrick said during a speech at the Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center. “I don’t remember ever owning a book as a child. I got my break in 1970 when I came to Massachusetts on a scholarship to a boarding school. For me, that was like landing on another planet.”

Patrick, 52, contrasted his journey from Chicago’s slums to Milton Academy to the experiences of his youngest daughter, Katherine, who he said has “traveled to four continents” and shaken hands with a president in the White House.
(Boston Herald)

In the same way, Senator Hillary Clinton told the powerful story of those who were once left out, now being included in the American dream!

You know, America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to every challenge in every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good. And I know what that can mean for every man, woman, and child in America.

I'm a United States senator because, in 1848, a group of courageous women, and a few brave men, gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights...

(APPLAUSE)

... to participate in the first convention on women's rights in our history. And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter, and a few sons and grandsons along the way.

These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes and imagined a fairer and freer world and found the strength to fight, to rally, to picket, to endure ridicule and harassment, and brave violence and jail.

And after so many decades, 88 years ago on this very day, the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, became enshrined in our Constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

My mother was born before women could vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for president. This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
(NY Times)

Basically, the hope of people being able to work for better and hope for better depends on a President Obama!