In the fields of southwest Iowa, my parents and grandparents worked and sacrificed. Like so many Iowans, the American Dream for them was never about wealth or fame. Their dream was to leave their children and grandchildren a better life, with greater opportunity, than their own.
Interpretation
The American Dream is about creating better opportunities for future generations, not wealth or fame.
In this quote, Joni Ernst reflects on the values of hard work and sacrifice that her family exemplified. She emphasizes that for her ancestors in southwest Iowa, the essence of the American Dream was less about personal gain and more about ensuring that their children and grandchildren would have access to a better life filled with more opportunities, highlighting the importance of familial legacy and the drive to uplift future generations.
In practice
This quote can be used during a speech at a family reunion to highlight family values.
It was only by luck and the blessings of God that my soldiers did not encounter an assault, that we did not run over an IED. And to dishonor our service by saying we're not worthy of being called combat veterans is insulting to the majority of men and women who serve their country honorably.
It's sad if people think that's (homemaking) a dull existance, [but] you can't just buy an apartment and furnish it and walk away. It's the flowers you choose, the music you play, the smile you have waiting. I want it to be gay and cheerful, a haven in this troubled world. I don't want my husband and children to come home and find a rattled woman. Our era is already rattled enough, isn't it?
No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother.
As a parent, it's my responsibility to equip my child to do this - to grieve when grief is necessary and to realize that life is still profoundly beautiful and worth living despite the fact that we inevitably lose one another and that life ends, and we don't know what happens after death.
Talk with your daughters, Play with your sons. You need to be a better friend to them than anyone else. This society offers lots of evil friends. Before they make those kinds of friends, they need to find their best friend in you.
It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents.
She's an immensely powerful woman, and I just admire my mother very much.
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