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This week I had an off-site meeting at our nearby arboretum. During one of the presentations, the facilitator expressed how "nice it feels to be here" - presumably they were referring to "beauty" of the plant life surrounding the room we were in. I couldn't help but utterly disagree with the facilitator, this place did not feel nice - it felt like a grand facade. A facade working to eliminate and erase the Native plants that once lived there. In the place of the Native plants that lived there - now lived plants foreign to the land. In order for these new plants to prosper on this foreign land, a great care of focus on their needs was required for their survival. This reminded me all too well of the birth of America. A place founded on institutionalized systems of domination used to socialize "Americans" to accept one's place in the colonial hierarchy. A hierarchy focusing on the needs and survival of upper class white America. Just like the Arboretum took to caring for the needs of these new plants, America took to caring for the needs of upper class white America, under the guise of the "American Dream," the ultimate facade.

The rhetoric of the "American Dream" offers the idea that upward mobility is both possible and limitless, which Bush and Bush (2015) in their Tensions in the American Dream: Rhetoric, Reverie, or Reality argued "provided just the rationale to garner loyalty to ideological rules and principles of capitalism and white supremacy. This justification implied that those who succeed are worthy, while those who do not succeed are not worthy or deserving" (p.95). Just like the plants at the Arboretum, these new foreign plants became much more worthy and deserving to inhabit this landscape, because they "made it" - they worked hard to achieve this new found livelihood. Never mind the care and focus the Arboretum gave to these plants survival, never mind the Arboretum's institutionalized support of these new plants. Now years after planting and caring for these seeds from all areas of the earth, this place know becomes a "melting pot" of a variety of plant life. But who decided which of those plants belonged and which of them didn't?

The "American Dream" has convinced us that to belong is to affirm one's status in the United States as "making it," particularly making it in under the ideological rules and principles of capitalism and white supremacy. Instead of our statuses being associated to our familial lineages or geographic location, it is consumed with "what we do" and most often times than not but not always "what we do to make money." In this context, we have convinced ourselves that "what we do" is "who we are" - and that "what we do" is indicative of our worth. Never mind the institutionalized systems that support the ideological rules and principles of capitalism and white supremacy. Never mind the care and focus these systems gave to upholding these rules and principles.

The "American Dream" is nothing but a facade used to socialize "Americans" to accept our places in the colonial hierarchy. If we are wanting to liberate ourselves from the years of oppression and violence, we must look inward and "free ourselves of the myth of America" starting with the "American Dream."

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The American Dream - The Ultimate Facade - Sasanehsaeh Jennings

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This week I had an off-site meeting at our nearby arboretum. During one of the presentations, the facilitator expressed how "nice it feels to be here" - presumably they were referring to "beauty" of the plant life surrounding the room we were in. I couldn't help but utterly disag

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What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

"Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—"    Does the so-called American Dream really give people more opportunities? And I ah yes alcohol is just gorgeous packaging on top of the dream.

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Having money can pay for tuition of college and allow my mother to not have to work so hard, and can go back to China whenever I wants to.

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For Mr.Hong the word "American Dream" is to follow your heart to achieve your goals. And his American dream is Enjoy hobbies and not worry about money, and keep family and friends happy. So far Mr.Hong's dreams come true, but he is still working on it.

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24 hours a day is too short, and I have period 0 & 8 on the Internet so that I have shorter free time, when I get home I want to paint, sleep, play games, and read novels. . . There are always things that I want to do constantly, so if I do this, I will do other things. So I hope to have more time.

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The American Dream is a hope for one's future. My American dream is to be an illustrator in the future, the best is to go back to China to live and work in the United States, and most of the illustrators work online, so this is possible. But I actually think the American dream = dream. They are all yearnings and expectations for future life, all of which are beautiful, but with a prefix, "American".

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Mago originally yearned for the United States and may have the American dream, but according to her later life in the miscellaneous books, she did not realize any dreams, and she didn't even finish school.
In chapter 16 Mago have said “ Nena , all that is nonsense . First of all , there is no Hell or the devil  Those are just stories Abuela Evila liked to frighten us with . Come on ,  when are you going to stop believing in that ? Use that imagination of  yours for other things . Second of all , if there is a Hell , we ' re already  living in it .  ” From these words it can be seen that Mago sees life as hell now.

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I like to draw and create, so I hope that my future work can be related to drawing, and illustrator is the job that I find the most satisfying. However, the universities related to fine arts are almost all private universities, so the tuition fees are very high.