Of Ceilings and Floors in America

The myth of America is that there is no ceiling... no limitation that hard work and ambition can not conquer. The reality is that there is no floor ... nothing to stop people from being conquered when ambition and hard work aren't enough. All too often ambition and hard work simply aren't enough. There are plenty of ceilings out there. If your a man is a drug addict ... that can be a ceiling. Being born into a particular cultural reality and/or social strata can be a ceiling. Something as innocuous as saying "yous" when addressing groups of people can mark your position and make it hard for you to leave it. These ceilings make a mockery out of equality of opportunity. Beyond the sickening stench of irony and betrayal, it just doesn't exist. We are not free to succeed on our own merits ... our freedom really only gives us room to fail. The American myth of equal opportunity only serves as an excuse to allow people to fail. We need to choose. Either we are about letting people rise and fall on their own merits, in which case we need to provide a level playing field ... or we're not and then we can't justify inaction when it comes to helping folks by pointing to individual freedoms and opportunities. It's time to live up to the myth or let it go.