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Page 15 text:
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«♦ should be concerned. When the eternal verities of the American human existence become the manipulative tool of ad campaigns and political rallies, it is obvious that a society is threatened to its very core. So although America may be back, there are still signs of moral and philosophical decrepitude with which the people who run the country will have to deal with. That particular burden has fallen upon us, the college students of the ' 80s. So while America may be back in heart, it s till has considerable work to do in the area of soul restoration. The key areas are not the popular social issues such as the question of abortion or birth control, but rather more fun- damental human values: honesty, competence, dedication, respect. If American college students are to capitalize (materially AND spiritually) from the recent resurgence of national pride and productivity, if they are to nurture and ride that wave into something lasting and significant, they must do so with the belief that their dedication can make a difference. To do so, they must seize upon the one fact that makes our nation unique - the abihty of those within its borders to control so much of their own destiny. The world is not some laboratory in which life is perfectible and we must never pretend this is so, for we lose two things: 1) the perspective of our past ex- perience and, 2) (it is here that the college students of the ' 60s erred, by not stopping to witness their accomplishments but raging on for more change) the realization that change, when it occurs, usually does so slowly. The ultimate winner is not the one who can rage the greatest and most fiercely for a short period of time, but rather to the one who perseveres, sus- tained by improvements but prodded con- tinually onward by the real possibiHties of the future. For all of its faults, America remains a place where much of the benefits and satisfactions a person gets out of his or her efforts is depen- dent upon what that person puts into them. This is a freedom so unique, yet one so unap- preciated. What does all this mean to college students at Creighton, or anywhere else? It means that the time has come for each one of us must realize the extent to which we are responsible for our own actions, and the implications of that responsibihty. It is not correct to presume, as most Americans used to, that anything that 1 can be conceived can be accomplished or anything that the U.S.A. does is correct -neither belief, as we have seen many times over, is always true. This is: that the future of ourselves and our country does not rest on divine providence, but individual choice. It depends on a large number of individuals within the society mak- ing the effort to make themselves better, then striving to improve their surroundings, their country and their world. It ' s a long, scary way from fate to choice, but it ' s an enlightening and exhilirating road to take. When we, as the protectors of America ' s future, see the difference that each one of us can make as individuals, we will be able to draw together, forge accomplishments from a vast reservoir of hope and ambition and make changes that will help the world beyond our own time. Can The American Dream still come true? Only if one is willing to pay a severe price in terms of effort and dedication, realizing all the while that the effort itself is ultimately what makes us all better. The American Dream can still be realized, if one chooses to search for it. And that search is the stuff that dreams are made of. The American Dream Revisited 11
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Page 14 text:
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Introduction ' Is a dream a lie if it don ' t come true Or is it something worse? -Bruce Springsteen Barely five years ago, the President of the United States declared a ' state of national malaise. ' Inflation hit record highs and morale hit depressing lows. Events in Iran and Afghanistan seemed, to some, to be driving home a critical, disturbing point: the United States could no longer afford to be the protec- tor of freedom for the world, that the country was, like a Britain or France, going to have to accept the role of just another fallen World War II winner turned regional power. The implication, trumpeted across the coun- try and around the globe, was that The American Dream - that ephemeral, in- describable potential for individual and societal fulfillment of objectives - was, in a word, dead. That in five years the country ' s state of mind could rally so disarmingly upward is testament to the resilience of a nation ' s spirit, the stub- borness of its people in weathering times of personal hardship and turbulent circumstance and the potential of the machinery of the republic to avert misdirected policies, right H wrongs and come to the aid of those in trouble. It is not simply in the view of our current President that America is back. Clearly, the nation ' s spirit has recovered, and with it, a sense of purpose and devotion to making America even better than she has been. The responsibiUty for this idealistic planning befalls college students of the day. It is the col- lege student of the ' 80s who will shape the country ' s future in the ' 90s and into the 21st Century. And just as the personality of the col- lege students of the ' 60s left and indelible mark on the mood and tone of the ' 70s, so to will we determine the mood of the years to come. Now, college students look upon the world with considerable doubt and trepidation. A story in Newsweek reports that ' if there is one characteristic of today ' s students that is more startling than any other, it is their apparently relentless anxiety about making it materially once they graduate. ' It is little wonder, judging from what those in college today have seen, that such is the case. In this increasingly materialistic and secular society, values are spoken of in Madison Avenue terms - as in, ' let ' s try to sell it from a ' values ' angle, go straight for the heart ' - and this is something with which we
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