That fire you see burning outside your window is the American Dream. If you check various satellite photos, you can see it engulfs all of the United States. If you zoom in just a little bit, you can see what’s left of your future, the futures of all of your children, and the futures of all of your grand-children going up in a raging inferno.

The American Dream is not on life support. The guys trying to shock it back to life with their defibrillator are shaking their heads. The heart monitor on the wall is delivering a solid tone against a flat-line backdrop.

You can blame whoever or whatever you want. You can get angry and make threats. You can vote this-or-that political party out and this-or-that political party in. You can throw tantrums, bite off fingers, and carry your gun around in public.

It won’t matter.

The jobs are gone. The credit is gone. The whole thing is just…well…gone.

All that will remain—all that virtually remains now—is the memory of what once was. Before the meltdown. Before the robber barons and the politicians put the country in a choke hold and squeezed just a little too hard for a little too long and strangled the Middle Class to death.

See that fire raging outside your window? It’s every dream you ever had for yourself, your children, and your children’s children going up in smoke. The American Dream is on the express elevator to Hell and, like it or not, the Middle Class is along for the ride.

© 2009, Mac Williams. All rights reserved.

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