A Guest Post From An American Dream Candidate, Heather Beaven (D-FL)

Heather Beaven ran against longtime incumbent John Mica in 2010 but this year, because both Republican incumbents, Mica and Sandy Adams, have fled inland to the more Republican-friendly 7th CD, the newly redistricted 6th is an open seat. Either Heather, or political newcomer, Vipin Verma, the two Democrats in the August 14th primary, will take on the winner of a bizarre menagerie of Republican oddities. In a district especially hard hit by joblessness, foreclosures and shuttered businesses, the GOP is offering a real freak show: right-wing ideologue and anti-Choice/anti-environment fanatic Ron DeSantis, deranged anti-gay crusader Bev Slough, clownish dentist-with-gun Fred Costello, Craig Miller, a rich corporate freak best known for having moved Ruth's Chris headquarters out of New Orleans two days after Hurricane Katrina, and Dick Clark, a guy who inherited his family's janitorial business and whose top issue is ending public education so the rich don't have to pay for poor people's children to go to school. Below, Heather talks about what's behind her decision to run.

-Howie

TIPPING POINT

-by Heather Beaven

Since I decided to run for US House of Representatives, the most common question I get from friends, family and even strangers is: “Why would you put yourself through that?”

I hear some version of that from people who love politics and people who hate it; people who think highly of our government and people who don’t; people who have significant wealth and people who struggle to make ends meet. And it always perplexes me. I keep thinking-- How could I not? How could you not?

I don’t want to miss my daughters’ surf competitions. I don’t want to be subject to ridicule or violent threats and I certainly don’t want to spend one moment away from my husband before he deploys to Afghanistan later this summer. But if people like us are scared off from serving their country, then haven’t we already abandoned both the Constitution and the American Dream?

I am fighting against eight Tea Party Republicans to represent the people of St. Johns, Flagler, Putnam and Volusia Counties even though I have every reason to ‘sit this one out’ because the constant drum beat of how America is working for a few while too many others fall slowly behind is… deafening.

It rings out in stump speeches across the nation. There is some truth in every off-the-cuff line uttered on the campaign trail. In Illinois, Mitt Romney tossed out a comment that makes clear; this election as about two very different definitions of the American Dream.

While describing his grandfather, Mr. Romney said that he worked hard, raised great kids and had a good wife but that “he never quite made it.” I literally gasped.

My grandfather worked hard. He raised great kids and he had a good wife. He’s in Heaven now with her and their son. I think of him every day. I think of the times I rode with him as he delivered mail in rural Missouri. I remember the stories he told of getting ‘milk fever’ while stationed in Ft. Hood. When I fish with my daughters, I feel him. I swell up with emotion when I remember the devotion he showed my grandma during her final days even though she didn’t remember him or their sixty five years together.

I suppose, by some people’s definition, my grandfather “never quite made it” because by the time he died all that he had earned by working hard was spent on caring for his ailing wife. But to me, he was the beacon of success and I take great comfort in knowing that he heard “well done, good and faithful servant.”

We are living in a tipping point moment as we face the fact that our children’s American Dream may be less vibrant than ours. Our generations’ greatest question to answer turns out to be the most basic-- does the exceptionalism of America still stand on the shoulders of average and normal Americans?

I am thrilled to be a part of the generation who gets to answer that question. In fact, I believe there is no greater moment in human history to be living and there has never been a more meaningful time to be an American.

We didn’t create the American Dream; our founding fathers did. We didn’t spill our blood on American soil to create a more perfect union; our great great granddaddies did that. We didn’t watch draught and greed turn America into a dust bowl only to demand better of our country and our corporations; our great grandfathers did that. And we didn’t answer the worlds’ plea for help in World War II; our grandfathers did.

It was our mothers who demanded that their daughters have a fighting chance at living the American Dream in homes free of abuse, work free of harassment and with a government free of discrimination. It was our mothers and our fathers who faced dogs and fire hoses so that every American could be educated, respected and equal.

We have been left a legacy that has made America the envy of the world. We now face the tipping point. Are we going to improve upon the America that has been handed down to us or are we going to undo every advance we have made? This answer will decide how history views our generation.

Even with the constant drum beat of judgment and regression, I still hear the American spirit. I hear it as loudly as I did on the day I graduated from Navy boot camp when I first truly realized what it meant to be a part of something greater. I hear it thumping as loudly as the hopes beating in the hearts of the children I work with everyday who still believe they can be anything. I hear it as confidently as the whisper between Soldiers in a foxhole who know they will always be there for each other.

For me this election is a tipping point. Will we pass the American Dream onto our children or will we tell them stories of it as some far off distant memory?