The American Dream And The Unwanted Child

By the time a nation celebrates a 200th birthday it is expected that will have a long list of accomplishments. It can also be expected to have some deficits; it may not as yet have accomplished all of its goals. This study has viewed one facet of the American Dream – the myth of America as a welcoming place for the unwanted of the world. The myth is that here there will be no unwanted people. This study explores this part of the American Dream by examining the plight of unwanted children. This study has grown out of this writer’s professional experience in the Southwest as a defender of abandoned, abused, neglected and delinquent youth of various ethnic backgrounds; and his involvement in a UNM American Studies project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities which documented the quality of life during a period of intense rapid growth in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from the 1940’s to the 1970’s.