Anthony Romero: The American Dream is about you deciding what it is you want with your life.  It’s about seeing all the potential.  It’s about making very personal decisions over how we’re going to spend our lives and how we’re going to think about the world.  It’s about having full, unfettered ability to think about what we care about and what we do.  And of course, there are limits over our ability to affect other individuals, but it’s the idea that the person is sovereign over his or her own body, and that anything is possible. The American Dream gets described as someone who comes from humble beginnings and makes it to the top. And I’ve been lucky in the fact that I started out from a humble background, with great family, and Lord knows I never imagined I would be here talking with you today.  So having gone to the best schools, and leading a remarkable organization like the one I lead, is living the American Dream.  But the American Dream is every day.  The American Dream is being able to walk outside your door and not worry about government surveillance, not to worry about where the next paycheck comes, to be able to think about the potential, the possibility, the learning.  So the American Dream is all about possibility.  It’s about dreaming. That’s why it’s called the dream.  It’s the American Dream, it’s not “the American Promise,” it’s the American Dream. What do you dare dream? What can you imagine in your mind’s eye? What will you do?  You can daydream. You can live the dream. You can act the dream. You can make the dream come true.  And it’s so much greater than anything we’ve ever been able to describe.  It’s not about the next good job, it’s not about the next promotion, it’s not about the next fancy car.  The American Dream is about potential of the human spirit, that anyone can do it.  That even the most humble among us have a lot to offer and contribute and can dream.