New Feature Will Focus on the Dream

Patch, in conjunction with the Huffington Post, is starting a new series we’re calling "Dispatches: The Changing American Dream." The following is my first realization of how powerful that dream is.

In 1976 I was a teenager living at the Subic Bay Naval Complex in the Philippines. My father was the commanding officer of a squadron at Cubi Point Naval Air Station, part of the Subic Bay Naval Complex.

American involvement in Vietnam had ended the year before with the fall of Saigon. In the spring of 1976 there were still lingering effects. For those of us living at Subic Bay, the most profound of these effects were the Vietnamese refugees, the “boat people” who made their way to the Philippines.

One of the advantages of living on a U.S. Navy base in the tropics in 1976 was the opportunity to go scuba diving.  One Sunday morning our high school diving club was heading out to a reef near Grande Island at the mouth of Subic Bay.

As we neared the spot where we intended to anchor, we saw a very old, rusty fishing trawler come around the point and into the bay.  We knew the captain of the ship was not familiar with Subic because he was coming in on the shallow side of the opening to the bay.

As the trawler came closer, we could see it was packed to the rails with people, refugees fleeing political persecution in the belief that they could have a better life in a new country.  They were chasing "The American Dream" and had risked everything — their lives and the lives of the babies they held in their arms that Sunday morning — to get a chance to live that dream.

A dozen people may define "The American Dream" a dozen different ways. But at a high level, we'll think of it as the idea that "If you work hard and play by the rules, you should have as good a chance as anyone to create a better life for yourself and your family." That idea still holds true for some of our neighbors, but for many others that dream remains out of reach.

Our "Dispatches" will chronicle both the negative effects of the economic crisis and the creative and innovative ways people all across the country are responding to it.

These stories will form a mosaic that we'll be showing off on each Patch and on The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post stories that grow out of this effort will be ground-up reporting across the country that will put a spotlight on each community and, we’re sure, produce many surprising results.

And, of course, we need your help: Tell us what issues and what stories in Benicia make up your American Dream.