Yes, you, too.

What do we tell schoolchildren about the future, about their future? “Why, you can be anything you want. Yes, you, too, can be President.”
At least, that’s what we were told, and we assume that each generation of children is told the same. Our presidents were themselves children once, and someone likely told them the same thing, so in a sense, it’s true.
Granted, there have been some aspiring presidential dynasties, including father and son Adams, and father and son Bush. The Kennedys might have seen brothers elected, and Jeb Bush might surprise us one day. We may even soon see a husband and wife both having held the office – in fact, that looks likely. Otherwise, our presidents, who have numbered just 43, have come mostly from improbable and often humble beginnings. Few have set out with that goal; circumstances have more often than not led them to the role.
Sonoma Valley High School has a “Leadership” class, an elective course that some students take all four years. From that group comes the student body president, called the “Voice,” as well as other officers and campus leaders.
Those teens shared a lunch last week with a few local, grown-up leaders. Put together by Stephanie Dunn, president of Three House MultiMedia (the Sun’s parent company), the event was purchased by an anonymous donor at the Sunnys Awards Dinner last March, to involve the Leadership students with local leaders from government, business, and professions.
The message? Much the same: anyone can achieve success – anyone can be called upon to lead.
Success in America depends less on inheritance and class, though those can be real advantages, than it does on passion and perseverance. That opportunity is a national characteristic that immigrants from around the world recognize, and have recognized for more than two centuries.
We’ve remarked before on the benefits of the American systems of enterprise, relatively free, and of government, relatively unobtrusive. While enterprise could be freer of government, and government freer of coercion, compared to anywhere else in the world the U.S. best rewards merit, whether good ideas or good execution or some combination of the two.
We need not seek royal largesse, as in the Venezuela that just joan has been describing recently, nor do we routinely hand cash “under the table,” as is customary in many countries, or pay “protection.” Sure, life is not fair nor is everyone honest, but as Americans we’re pretty much free to keep what we earn and free to spend it as we wish. And not surprisingly, there’s generally somebody else who makes it a business to cater to those wishes.
There are 49 of us who apparently can envision being president of this nation. That’s how many men and women California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has put on our February 8 ballots (see Monday’s Reporter’s Notebook at sonomasun.com). A few are household names, a few are likely to become household names, and though the rest may be known only in their own households, they, too, believe, and we’re glad they do.