It's all about messaging...and the message being delivered by our elected (entitled would be more accurate) elites is this:

"The American Dream is no more...and we who have managed America's blood and treasure, and filled our coffers with its riches, no longer believe it can be made available to everyone...nor should it be. You everymen who have done everything that was asked of you - worked hard, raised families, contributed to your communities, fought our wars, paid your taxes, your unemployment insurance, your Social Security and Medicare withholdings, must accept that the American Dream is out of reach for you...even though you paid for it your entire life. Yes, you did so because your government espoused the promise of doing so...but your government has chosen to set a new course.

Unfortunately, we who have lived the dream, now choose to tell you it won't be what was promised...and you can't hold us accountable for breaking that promise. Now that we, and our benefactors, have squeezed all that could be extracted from the pot of gold, we must inform you that the pot is empty, and we won't be refilling it with the excesses we now hold.

It is time for you to accept that the expansive dream is now little more than a shrinking flower...and it is you who must sacrifice, you who must accept that your golden years will be a cliffhanger of calculations. As each year passes, and the holes in your safety net multiply and expand, you will sit at your table and wonder if the costs of survival will eclipse your means to do so. This shall be your sacrifice.

Let us be clear, this is not a moment for shared, temporary sacrifice. This is not akin to the many times in our storied history when momentary need was met by monumental sacrifice. We're not asking you to leave your homes and build bombs to defeat a defined enemy...we have either contracted that job to our corporate overlords or found fledgling fools on foreign soils to toil for less. We will, however, require you to buy our parlayed products at prices you can't afford...because you now realize that our long engagement to enterprise is a binding union of a different stripe.

You wont hear any of us promising to reverse these sacrifices if and when prosperity returns. You see, you wont be a part of prosperity...that window has been sealed off. Were the American Dream a board game, we have chosen to end that game midstream. You will take what you have...or haven't...at this moment in time...and so will we...and a new game with a new set of rules will begin. What you have contributed is irrelevant...there isn't enough left to go around. Your portion must come from a smaller pie. The fact that we baked it is also irrelevant. The fact that we have our own pies is none of your business.

Those of you who insist on noting the historical ebb and flow of prosperity...and positing that lean times will surely give way to bounty...must conquer your optimism. It is no longer an innate American trait. We will define your values and your value. Your task is to resolve yourself to the new order...and be thankful that the new less is not more less.

Don't recount America's interminable will to succeed to your children. Such folly will make future sacrifice less palatable...and we all agree that anarchy is anathema to our adjusted and austere aspirations. America must continue...albeit as a shell of its former self. So long as you do as instructed, it will.

It's a new day; it's a new dawn...awaken to the new America. The nightmare will soon be over, my fellow Americans. We assure you the American Dream will live on. Tomorrow, if you look in the windows, you too will see it."

I can't wait...can you?

Every now and again, inspiration pushes its way through the mundane and the miserable and into our everyday consciousness. The most recent instance of this all too rare occurrence comes in the unlikely embodiment of a 47 year Scottish charity worker and self-reported virgin...Susan Boyle.

On the latest episode of Britain's Got Talent, Boyle made her way to the stage, endured the cynicism of the audience and the judges, and then proceeded to bring the house to its feet with her spectacular rendition of the acclaimed Les Miserables tune, I Dreamed A Dream.

You can see Boyle's performance in the following YouTube video. As of this moment, the video has been viewed over eight million times...jumping by well over two million views just today. Her story was featured on tonight's national news and you can expect to see her in numerous other interviews and appearances.

I suspect Susan Boyle symbolizes the ray of hope many are seeking in these times of economic uncertainty. Her story also begins the difficult task of restoring our faith that living a decent life will not go unnoticed. While Wall Street weasels wag the dog, the Susan Boyle's of the world serve to remind us that fame need not be flashy...in fact it is far more real when it is authentic. Susan Boyle, thank you for helping us put our feet back where they belong...firmly planted in the solid soil of sincerity.

Having watched this video numerous times, it sent my synapses into overdrive...connecting this event with other inspirational moments long seared in my memory banks. What they all have in common is the simplicity that comes with knowing something is right...even when the darkness seems destined to distort our ability to distinguish it from the demons that surround us.

With that in mind, I've included two videos from a little known 1991 movie, Hear My Song, featuring Ned Beatty as the renowned true life tenor Josef Locke. In the movie, a nightclub owner believes he can save his struggling business by booking Locke, an iconic figure in self-exile from the UK due to pending tax troubles. Locke, in a daring and risky return to the UK, makes his triumphant appearance before an adoring crowd eager for inspiration. Hear My Song is a story of triump reminiscent of Susan Boyle's roof-raising moment. Both are a reminder of the power of the human spirit so often found in song.

The final video is from Alejandro Amenabar's 2004 movie, The Sea Inside, chronicling the true story of Ramon Sampedro's efforts to end his life many years after an accident has left him a quadriplegic. In this video, Sampedro (played brilliantly by Javier Bardem) employs the only tactic that has enabled him to endure his dilemma...he imagines himself flying out his bedroom window...across the beautiful terrain on his way to the sea...the singular source of tranquility in his troubling existence. He does so while listening to one of the quintessential tenor arias in opera, Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot.

Each of these stories have at their core the unyielding nature of the human spirit...a belief that beauty and bounty can be found in all that encompasses our often exasperating and existential existence. All remind us that this life is precarious at best...but also that a life well-lived and a life well-ended may be the essential elements over which we're able to exert any meaningful influence. When we do either well, all of humanity is enhanced. Susan Boyle may be our most recent protagonist to prove as much.