“The American Dream is Still Alive”
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Vern Buchanan penned an op-ed in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence and applauding our shared ideals. Buchanan shares his personal story living the American Dream and lays out his hopes for the next 250 years.
“As we gather this Fourth of July to watch the fireworks, let us remember that after 250 years, the American Dream is still alive,” writes Buchanan in the op-ed. “If our history proves anything, it’s that the best is yet to come.”
Read the full op-ed here or below:
America at 250: A Nation of Unlimited Possibilities
Congressman Vern Buchanan
Every member of Congress has been asked to write a postcard for a time capsule marking America’s 250th birthday, to be sealed away and opened by a generation we will never meet in another 250 years. What do you say to Americans 250 years from now? What do we want future generations to know about the nation we built and the values we stood for?
For me, it begins with gratitude for the journey that brought us here. Two hundred and fifty years ago, ordinary Americans risked everything to declare that people could govern themselves and that liberty was worth defending. From the start, America was built not on bloodlines or background, but on shared ideals: freedom, opportunity and self-government.
President Ronald Reagan said it best when he recalled a letter he once received. “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.” That is the promise that has drawn entrepreneurs, workers and families to our shores for two and a half centuries.
From the beginning, Americans achieved what no other nation had done. When George Washington stepped down after two terms, he set in motion a peaceful transfer of power that kings and emperors could scarcely imagine, proving that in America, no one is above the people. That faith in ordinary citizens has driven our progress ever since.
America’s story is one of grit, innovation and sacrifice. Pioneers pushed west across a vast and unforgiving frontier, and the Homestead Act gave ordinary families a chance to own land and build a future from nothing. We connected the nation by rail, powered homes with Edison’s light, and put a voice on every line with Bell’s invention of the telephone. The Wright brothers took flight, Ford’s assembly line put cars within reach of working families, and American medicine defeated polio and other deadly diseases. We didn’t stop there. We split the atom, won the race to the moon and led the world into the digital age.
When freedom was threatened, Americans answered the call. President Lincoln preserved the Union and ended slavery, beginning the long march toward the promise that all are created equal. A generation of heroes stormed the beaches of Normandy and fought across two oceans to defeat tyranny, delivering back-to-back victories in the World Wars. When communism challenged liberty, American resolve won the Space Race and, ultimately, the Cold War. President Reagan stood in Berlin and demanded, “Tear down this wall.” It later fell.
Through it all, the true engine of American progress has never been our land, our resources or our industries. It has always been our people and their belief that where you start does not determine where you finish. Veterans returned home and used the GI Bill to enter college and join the middle class. Entrepreneurs turned bold ideas into world-changing industries. Time and again, Americans have achieved extraordinary things thanks to the opportunities only this nation offers.
I know that promise firsthand. I grew up in a blue-collar family as the fifth of six kids in a 900-square-foot home. Hard work was a way of life. I worked my way through college, served in the Air National Guard and built a business from the ground up. That only happened because America is the one place where determination and hard work can carry an ordinary person to an extraordinary life.
So when it came time to write my postcard to the future, here is what I said:
As you read this 250 years from now, I hope one thing remains as true for you as it was for me: that only in America can a blue-collar kid, raised in a 900-square-foot home with five siblings, grow up through hard work and determination to build a business and serve in the United States Congress. America is a nation of unlimited possibilities. My prayer is that it always will be.
As we gather this Fourth of July to watch the fireworks, let us remember that after 250 years, the American Dream is still alive.
If our history proves anything, it’s that the best is yet to come.
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) is the Vice Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the Chair of the Health Subcommittee. Prior to serving in Congress, Buchanan was in business for over 30 years and chaired both the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and Florida Chamber of Commerce.
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