Allow me to paint a picture of the American Dream. It doesn’t start in America. It starts in a faraway place. A place where dreams are either forbidden or nonexistent. Maybe a place of war or famine. Maybe a place of poverty or oppression. Maybe a place with no opportunities. Devoid of hope.

Then they hear… “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” And they believe it. They walk, sail, fly, crawl to get to this place of the golden door, because they yearn to breathe free. They come in droves for the promise.

That promise is the foundation of my country. The stories of immigrant families who came to Ellis Island with only the clothes on their backs abound. Look around. They are everywhere. Came with nothing. Made their way up to successful individuals through hard work. Changed their lives for the sake of their children and their children. All the way down to me…and you. Unless you are a Native American or descendent of slaves, you a child of immigrants. We are all children of immigrants.

Maybe the reason we all feel so strongly about individual determination in our country is because we were birthed by risk takers. The ones who gave all they had to board a ship. Or walk for weeks. Or fly over barbed wire fences. The ones who left all they had known, at great risk, in hopes of finding something better. They taught our grandparents and great grandparents that the risk is worth the reward. Initiative. Hard work. Never giving up. Those are the tenants of this American Dream that our ancestors chased across the globe. A set of ideals that anyone can do anything, no matter their background, if they want it badly enough. In our country, if they work hard and are determined they will find freedom, dignity, and success on our shores.

America has been held in the world’s view as a society where you have the freedom to choose. To follow your passions. To shoot for the stars. To make your dreams come true. A city on a hill. A place where “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What a noble dream, that everyone is created equal by God. If only we believed what we say we believe.

Unfortunately, the American Dream has become the American Nightmare for many of our neighbors, who find that equality doesn’t exist in America. When they came they believed the words all men are created equal… all have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Only to find, years later, that they are not the ones those words apply to. No matter how hard they fought to get here. No matter how they have tried to follow the steps to stay here, the words do not apply to them. They are villainized. Made to appear to be violent criminals. Persecuted unlawfully…because the laws of due process no longer apply.

The American Nightmare has replaced the American Dream. The ideals of initiative and vision for the future of your family will get you arrested. Showing up to work or offices to do things the “right” way are enough to get you kidnapped. Walking down the street in brown skin tags you as a gang member worthy of a concentration camp. An elementary school graduation, a preschool carpool line, a school bus stop…nowhere is safe from the threat of capture.

On the world stage, we are no longer known as the place where dreams come true. We are to be avoided at all costs. The alarm has gone out…The American Dream was just words. A farce. The great experiment of the equality of all men has failed.

Unless…we can turn the tide. Show up. Stand up. Speak up. For life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For ALL people. For the American Dream instead of the American Nightmare.