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Hey, I didn’t see you there welcome to Headgraphics.net, my name is Patrick Yurick. Today I want to talk to you about James Naughtie’s radio series premiering on BBC radio 4 tilted American Dreams But first:

The Greeting of the day: What is your American dream?
Examples: Tough though it is:
• Two kids, a dog, a wife and a meaningful financial income
• Money and a way to make it to feel productive and have time for a social life and a couple vacations a year
• Work your but off to make a TON of money and retire at 40 to a life traveling the globe drinking and eating exotic things in exotic places with the ability to afford several maintained places across the globe you call home.

Article of the day: “Is the American Dream in business?” by James Naughtie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7482019.stm

Summation: This is the first in a four part series chronicling the state of the American dream through the observational eyes of an English foreigner. Naughtie talks about how middle class Americans are getting scared because of the, now seven year, economic decline. He focuses this first broadcast on the area of Detroit which was a once thriving business frontier in the age of industry. Slowly, in the last even years, the middle class American has become less and less hopeful that they will achieve their dreams as most have been just struggling to keep what they once thought was untouchable to financial distress, even if it was a small piece. Factors that have contributed to this distress are:
• Soaring gas prices
• Job outsourcing
• Continually rising national debt
• And many more

Positive connection: This article hit me in a very personal manner. In the past seven years I have seen my own family struggle with the same financial distresses that seem to be affecting everyone everywhere. During the nineties it seemed as if the world was rich with possibility of financial success, but these days in the world of money the world seems like the last couple weeks have been here in Maine – slightly sunny with a good chance of scattered thundershowers.
We, as a people, are facing dark times. Our economic stability seems bleak. Our ability to maintain ourselves as an American “Superpower” seems continually threatened, by ourselves and outsiders who seek to bring us down. Even worse, our environment is being threatened the most by the fallout of our inability to cohabitate on this planet.
So what is the answer? Well there isn’t one. No one thing will save us. That does not mean that we the people should succumb to despair. In life we are faced with dire potentials. We are born into a world and given consciousness with the knowledge that someday, if we survive long enough, will outlive those whom we are required to trust for safety. We are going to die. All that we have accomplished will be left behind and there is no guarantee that anything we do here will matter. Those are the facts we are born into.
We do have something though. We can build faith within ourselves. We can think positively and work towards making today just bearable enough to smile at. In the wake of everything dire that could possible befall us, this is all we have. The here and now to make a choice. We may lose all of our money and our possessions and lose everything we hold dear. It is a distinct possibility. Our choice right now is whether to fall into the fear of this possibility and to contribute to the negativity the pervades and fights to invade every facet of our existence, or we can bring into the world the only thing we have within our power to use in the fight against all that which is bleak and unforgiving – love and peace. Which first is felt through the self and then practiced with others. Make your choice.

Word of the day: COMPASSION (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion)

ORIGIN Middle English : via Old French from ecclesiastical Latin compassio(n-), from compati ‘suffer with.’

Well I hope you learned something, I know I did. Have an enlightening day, I hope I’ll see you again!

Music of the day:

“Pizza Cutter” by Letters to Cleo
“At First Sight” by Jay Brannan
“Soda Shop” by Jay Brannan