Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 3
CHAPTER 1
THE POWER OF A DREAM
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THE GENIUS OF AMERICA
The genius of America is to provide the environment where any person can pursue a
dream of achievement and enjoy its results.
As surely as a human is able to think, a human is able to dream. I have never met
anyone who, at one point or another during life, didn’t have a dream. People have
dreams of self-improvement in Cochabamba, Budapest, Copenhagen, Jerusalem and
Shanghai. It matters little where they are born. What matters is whether or not there is a
climate propitious for development of the dream. Then it becomes fundamentally
important whether one is in Bolivia, Hungary, Denmark, The Holy Land or China. After
spending a lifetime reading, traveling, talking with well informed persons and actually
doing business and living in some of these countries, I find it impossible not to conclude
that America is by far the brightest shining beacon of hope in the world.
I, like many millions before and after me, saw the light of that beacon and deciphered its
message. America is a machine of hope and prosperity. The central idea of this book is
to describe how, slowly but surely, my life’s journey ties in with my growing awareness
of how such a social machine was conceived and continues to evolve. And how,
although I was born six thousand miles away, it affected me so thoroughly. And what, I
believe representing millions of people with similar views, am doing to preserve it.
Although this book is filled with examples of my interactions with people who have
affected and shaped my life, it is essentially a book about the origin and application of
certain public policies that give structure to the American social compact. By describing
aspects of these interactions, I seek to lift the veil that often obscures the proofs of my
fundamental thesis about America’s genius. I intend to shed light on how this genius
came to exist. My approach includes reviewing historical events or periods; interpreting
the accomplishments of some of the architects who helped build the pyramid of human
progress; describing some of the lessons I received from contemporary role models;
and, finally, recounting my own stories. Obviously this work is my autobiography. Its
presentation is like an embroidery on the cloth of America that I stitch by describing its
public policies. Just as the lives of all my countrymen do, my story gives texture to the
fabric of America’s social compact.
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