The Gantry Launchpad

What is the American Dream?

The lovely and talented Ambra Nykol, recovering from a five-state whirlwind tour, is doing some R&R in Connecticut.

While recharging her reserves, Ambra asked several good questions. For one of them I can't resist an answer:
Someone please clarify this "American Dream" for me if you will. That's a phrase tossed around rather loosely these days.

It's very simple, my dear. I'll let Arnold give my answer:

To think that a once-scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become governor of the state of California and then stand here...

... then stand here in Madison Square Garden and speak on behalf of the president of the United States -- that is an immigrant's dream.

It is the American dream.

...

We are still the lamp lighting the world, especially those who struggle. No matter in what labor camp they slave, no matter in what injustice they're trapped, they hear our call. They see our light. And they feel the pull of our freedom.

They come here, as I did, because they believe -- they believe in us. They come because their hearts say to them, as mine did, "If only I can get to America." You know, someone once wrote, "There are those who say that freedom is nothing but a dream." They are right. It's the American dream.