Broken Spirits.

"Broken Spirits" that is what I call those who live their lives without ambition. Persons who simply have given up for whatever reason and who cannot or will not try to better themselves. I wonder at times; can much of this state of desperation be attributed to ignorance, a lack of understanding that poverty and squalor needs not be the norm?  If it is from ignorance then I must wonder, are these hapless souls blind as well? For here, more so than any other nation on earth, the ability, and opportunity, to transcend and break free of economic and social bonds exists.  This is a well known fact, one that draws hundreds of thousands to our shores each and every year. They seek the opportunity to succeed, which in many cases is nonexistent in their homeland.

Foreigners know and accept that here in the United states, with a bit of frugality and industry they can better not only their lot in life, but that of their children as well. Yet it seems many of our very own citizens, born and raised here, have no knowledge of this fact, even though the evidence is before their eyes. They despair and lament, in place of striving and working for a better plight. They sit back and accept the drippings from the public table, the very scraps of society’s labor, and think of nothing else, bound as surely as if they were in chains to the state and that which it meets out.

I speak not from an ivory tower, for I have been amongst the disenfranchised, I have known the hunger and desperation that comes from living hand to mouth. Yet even as I made my way through the dimly lit hallways and darkened streets that only those people know, I understood that such an existence need not be. That there was and is something better out there for anyone who has the fortitude and determination to strive.  This is America; this is the land of opportunity and freedom, the nation that inspired the world with its success and liberty.

The American Dream lives, and is achievable, for I am a testament to that truth.

It saddens me so to watch so many of my fellows shuffle along listlessly, desperate, fearful and blind, for in reality there is no point in such behavior.  The Broken Spirits need only open their eyes, to see that the dream can be theirs, that they do not have to be beaten down and forced into a state of despair perpetuated by the dole. If they simply could look up from their worn shoes and television sets, and understand that the success which lays beyond their dark corner could be theirs, with a bit of determination and grit.

In America; “Every man can be his own master, no matter the station to which he was born.”

Would that more folks understood that.

Cheers

Allen R. butler