By Phil Sutton, D.B.A.

TRAILBLAZER TO REVIVAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

 

NEW INTRODUCTION

 

Many commented about the supreme paradox of the Sutton Viewpoint Center's corporate jet plane christened the Liberty Bell IV taking off from Philadelphia on U.S. Constitution Day for London to attend the State Funeral for a British Monarch.

 

When we arrived in England we were impressed with the throngs of well-wishers who stood in line for hours to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II. I remembered her talking about the newsreels she saw in 1945 when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and his coffin was taken from Warm Springs, Georgia to Washington, D.C. No less for her from Balmoral Castle to London 77 years later.

 

The Queen and FDR served the longest tenures as British Monarch and U.S. President, respectively, and left immense shoes to fill for King Charles III and Harry S. Truman. President Truman rose to become one of the great presidents in his own right; the world has to hope and pray the same will be the case for the new king.

 

The fact of the matter is that everything that is civilized, enlightened and cultured that has mattered in human history the past millennium has come from Great Britain and its lost colonies. It is imperative that the United Kingdom and the United States regain their positions as leaders and models to the rest of the world.

 

The author does not know when it happened precisely, but Americans have lost sight of the fact that we are indeed the ones in control in this country! Not the politicians, lobbyists, the news media or power brokers, but us! That’s how Democracy has, does and always will work.

 

If problems are to be resolved, the Citizens must do more than occasionally register our angst and vehemence at the ballot box. We must stop the blame game and take a good long look at ourselves and our World in the “mirror”. Many in psychology and “self-help” arena tell us that we as individuals will see our lives turn out as we see it turning out.

 

This is no less true for our nation and our world. Collectively, America has flunked the “mirror test.”  To pass this test we must collectively believe we can and will improve our national and the world’s state of affairs. Just how we can proceed in this endeavor is the focus of this “How To” book for America.

 

The American dream has different meaning to each and every one of us. This is how it should be. However, when one thoroughly reviews and investigates the history of the United States, there are four underpinning Universal Themes or Principles of the American Dream that are responsible for America’s greatness. The author has discussed and detailed each one these principles in Chapter One.

 

It is then logical to continue this conversation, and expanding upon it, by inquiring: what happened? Americans no longer trust their Government. The vast majority of Americans believe that it is no longer possible for them to pass on a better future to their children, a hallmark of the American dream.

 

Donald Trump campaigned saying Americans need to make “America great again.” Those who are 77 and older as he is may know what he is referring to. Those who are the author’s age – 63 and younger–have no idea what the 45th U.S. President is discussing. We have never known America as great.

 

During our childhoods, we only knew national distress and America falling apart at the seams: the two Kennedy and King assassinations; Vietnam; the Arab oil embargoes; Watergate; stagflation; the Iranian hostage crisis; the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and the covid-19 pandemic. The historic foundation of America’s greatness and what has happened to it will be reviewed in Chapter Two.

 

During the author’s undergraduate years in college, the author took a course in General Semantics that changed my viewpoint of the world forever. Perception and interpretation of the events around us is the most compelling factor in how we behave and conduct ourselves. What we believe is not always true and what is true, we do not always believe.

 

General Semantics forces us to examine and wrestle with our beliefs that we ourselves accept as fundamentally true, but in fact are not. Most of us would say that if we lived 160 years ago at the time of the American Civil War we would have supported and/or fought on the union side, right? After all, the union won and ended slavery, right?

 

Humans, when confronted with a decision of this magnitude, rarely see such a cut and dry choice in front of them. The author would be one of those that would say I would have chosen to fight on the union side. As an 11-year old boy, the author made such a statement, in fact. Fresh off a tour of Gettysburg, Antietam, Manassas and Harper’s Fairy while visiting relatives in West Virginia, the author made such a boast to my father after we returned to Montana. Dad just laughed and was quick to remind me of our southern ancestry which includes his namesakes John Marshall and

Robert E. Lee.

 

Dad went on to inform me that the author’s sister, brother and I had ancestors at the Battle of Hastings on the side of William, the Conqueror; were some of the nobles that virtually forced King John to sign the Magna Charta 808 years ago; and that we were descendants of Henry VII, who expanded the powers of the Parliament after the War of the Roses; and were Stuart Pretenders, which families included that

of George Washington.

 

Some traditional British historians may find it positively galling that none other than George Washington is more closely related to William, the first British/English Monarch, than is King Charles III.

 

As a result of our mother’s Norman ancestry, the author was named after Prince Philip and my brother was named Stuart, after the House of Stuart, the last ruling House in London which our family is directly related and was loyal to.

 

My father was not finished. Through his mothers’ ancestry we are related to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe; John, Peyton and Edmund Randolph; Richard H. Lee and Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee III; and John Marshall. He took a little pride in calling his mother an “unreconstructed rebel.”

 

There is a story told in the Lee Family told to me by my father which you will not find in the history books but illuminates why Bobby Lee fought on the Confederate side. Shortly after a Confederate cabinet meeting, the General and Confederate President

Jefferson Davis had a conversation. In it, Lee told Davis he believed slavery to be morally wrong and secession to be unconstitutional.

 

Probably somewhat horrified, Davis asked Lee why he was there. Lee told him: “Five generations of my family have been born and raised in Virginia. I could no sooner raise my sword against Virginia than my own family.” That is why Robert E and Mary Custis Lee, step-Granddaughter of George Washington, abandoned the Lee Family home, Stratford Hall, and fought on the Confederate side during the American

Civil War.

 

My father had made his point. He led me to realize that the decision concerning which side to fight on during our nation’s civil war was not as easy and clear-cut as I had imagined. So often we have core beliefs that unduly influence our values, viewpoints and decisions, many times without even realizing it!

 

Our current viewpoints of America, its relationships to other nations and our internal affairs are set by our belief systems and, that in reality, may be faulty and need to be appropriately changed! Please understand the author is not trying to foment a national introspective here or persuade the readers to toss your current belief structure and adopt a new one, although for some that might not be a bad idea at all. The author is merely suggesting that everyone be willing to open their minds upon different perspectives and how we perceive our world and our future. This is the primary topic of the third chapter.

 

Finally, after defining the four “Universal Themes of The American Dream”, what has happened to undermine them and how we relate these principles to and interpret our current situation, it is only fitting then we devise Recommendations to follow to revive, then reclaim and finally redeem the American Dream.

 

Each of the last four chapters addresses each of the four Universal Thematic Principles in turn. Robert Frost defined the American spirit well when he wrote: “... I came upon a fork in the road and I took the road less traveled by and that has

made all the difference.”1

 

America not only has taken the road less traveled but has blazed that road itself many a time in its history and it has made all the difference. Regardless of what the reader believes concerning the future of America and no matter what you think

of the Recommendations that you will soon discover in this book, it is sincerely hoped the discussion will be enlightening for the betterment of all America and

informative to the reader concerning America’s past, present and future.

 

As the world is currently discovering, the United States of America – once the example to the rest of the World in so many ways – can no longer be trusted and viewed with such distinction. Americans must endeavor to greatly change that.

 

The author first met Nelson Mandela at a White House Reception in June 1990. I had spearheaded efforts to persuade the Reagan Administration to support the

International Boycott against Apartheid in South Africa. The Boycott began bearing fruit when we focused upon freeing Nelson after 27 years in prison.

 

Nelson made a B-line in my direction to show his appreciation for our activism and I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. He immediately began to discuss what else had to be done and asked for my support, which I readily pledged.

 

When Nelson passed away in December 2013, I attended his State Funeral in Qunu. It was there my thoughts of Nelson and all he taught me led me to create the Sutton Viewpoint Center's International Trailblazer Program.

 

The SVC Trailblazer Program has become the Chief Education & Training Program in the world for Economic & Public Policy Development. Many of the key proposals which are taught worldwide and can make Revival of the American Dream inevitable

can be discovered in this opus. We must be certain no one is left behind.

 

-Phil Sutton, DBA
International Independence Creek, Jefferson (New 51st State)
March 27, 2023
Website: svctrailblazerpublications.com

 

1 Frost, Robert, “The Road Not Taken”, 1916, Poetry Foundation, www.

poetryfoundation.org