Tell Us Your American Dream

We're excited to inaugurate a new series for our Patch Readers: Dispatches: The Changing American Dream.

Every day, the national media is full of stories about how American families, businesses, and neighbors are adjusting to these trying times.

There are so many changes happening so fast that it's dizzying: national debates about unemployment, foreclosures, debt, religion, government and private enterprise all touch on fundamental ways in which we see ourselves and our communities.

At Patch, we want to explore that conversation on a daily basis so we can better understand how our neighbors are adjusting to the challenges and opportunities that surround us.

We don't think there's one American Dream, but a multitude of American Dreams which a multitude of people are working toward.

Looking out across nearly almost 900 Patch sites, we see businesses hold their breath deciding whether to expand; college graduates return home because they can't find jobs to pay their own rent; and senior citizens bring boarders into their homes for income to help pay bills.

We also see bold new volunteer efforts, inspiring stories of local businesses that succeed because they innovated, and locals who've taken these trying times as a signal to engage more, not less, in their government.

At the purely local level, we want to know where we, as Cupertino neighbors, fit along these fault lines.

Nationally, the debate rages over who is polluting the environment and how it affects our health. Locally, the Lehigh Cement Plant fuels not only our county’s cement needs but it fires up environmentalists and neighbors who charge the company violates state mining regulations and other laws.

Nationally, there's a debate about the education system, which is at the center of our dreams of a better life for our children. Locally, we know Cupertino schools are part of the reason some of you moved here—and our children are realizing their dreams in our schools.

Dispatches will be built upon the compelling vignettes and snapshots we unearth across all of our Patch sites.

And, of course, we want your help: Tell us what issues and what stories in Cupertino go to the heart of your American Dream.