In my youth, I was taught to admire and emulate the successful and the ambitious.  Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Howard Hughes and others were held up to me as great men to be studied and emulated.  They were not simply rich.  They were great men.  They made huge contributions to society.  They invented things.  They built things.  They transformed their industries, and our lives.  They were successful in the broad sense of the word.  They had flaws, to be sure, but theirs was an example to be followed.

In more recent years, a different ideology seems to have taken hold.  We have different heroes.  Today, our young people seem to be taught that the successful and the ambitious are the beneficiaries of unfair advantage.  The traditional heroes are still studied, but what is taught is their errors and excesses.  Businessmen are criticized, not admired.  Today’s preferred heroes are those who spend the wealth that others earn.  They are those who “fight the system” for environmental causes or agitate for “social justice”.

Somewhere in this shift we lost something else, too.  We lost the honor accorded the average american worker. Whether a truck driver, teacher, doctor or dancer, standing on your own two feet and earning your own way was the mark of an adult, and a source of self-respect for a contributing citizen.

Today, respect for the independent, self-supporting member of society has been lost.  Young people today are no longer taught to take pride in the simple virtue of working hard to support themselves and their families.  Honor is given only to work that is “selfless” – usually political or social advocacy – never to the straightforward goal of advancing your own status and condition.

All this may have changed July 13th.  President Obama made a speech.

I believe that President Obama did not intend to revitalize our respect for dormant ideals.  I believe that he intended to criticize those who actually dared to take pride in their accomplishments.  I believe that he wanted to indulge in the collective sneer that I see brandished by his compatriots whenever the great accomplishments of individuals or the private sector are discussed.

It was not to be.

President Obama uttered what are now the famous words.

If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.

My blog post – – and many, many others, like this one reveal the strength of the reaction.  The last two weeks have been saturated with reaction.

The conversation has started, and it’s about time.

Mr Obama intended to remind us that the oversight and assistance of the government is the core of the american ideal, and essential to any progress or success.

Instead, he reawakened us to the fact that it is the decency and diligence of every individual citizen that makes us a great nation.  It is the courage of the entrepreneur, who risks and sacrifices time and treasure to build our nation, one business at a time.  It is the honor we give to each other for our accomplishments that inspires us to keep striving.  Mr. Obama reminded us that his constant refrain that we cannot make it “on our own” is dead wrong.

Thank you, Mr. President for reminding us what we value, what is important, and why we are a people who have a government, not the other way around.