/About The Book Life is the pursuit of happiness, something that is ordained not by men, but bestowed by God. Our Path to hope is our purpose, something we all must discover if we are to truly live up to our potential as human beings. In this book, I will address one of the most pressing concerns facing our country today: Immigration and cultural diversity. One is the problem and the other is the solution. As a citizen of the world, I will use my experiences to show how cultural diversity is not to be feared, but used to benefit us all. In difficult economic times, native citizens will naturally look for scapegoats, and immigrants, both legal and illegal, fit the bill. But if we are to move forward, we need to find ways to allow immigrants to freely contribute to our society in order to solve the problems we accuse them of causing. If we embrace the cultural diversity rather than fight it, we will succeed. In the global economy, we cannot afford to discount such a valuable resource as the many who leave their homes for a better life, fueled by their own Path to Hope. Immigration isn’t the problem, it’s the answer! Even when unemployment is high, millions of jobs remain unfilled 49% of businesses find it hard to fill critical jobs, 15% above the global average. By 2018, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs won’t be filled even if every American graduate with an advanced degree finds employment. Immigrants bring critical skills Construction will add 1.8 million jobs by 2020. 60% of Latino immigrants arrive with a sophisticated knowledge of the trade. 25% of scientists and engineers in the U.S. are foreign-born. Immigrants are 13% of the U.S. population but make up 28% of in-home health workers. Immigrants have higher work force participation rates than those born in the U.S. The U.S. must attract and retain human capital Immigration caps force 20,000 American-educated students to leave the U.S. every year. As the U.S. population ages, unfilled jobs will hinder growth By 2030, the U.S. will need to add 25 million workers to the labor force to sustain current growth. Without immigrants, the U.S. will not have enough new workers to support retirees. More than one-third of the U.S. population growth is attributed to new immigrants. By 2050, 93% of growth in the U.S. working-age population will be due to immigrants and their children. 75% of the foreign-born labor force is in the vital 25-54 year-old category - higher than their U.S.-born counterparts. Multi-lingual immigrants boost trade Every 100 H1-B visas creates 183 jobs for American-born workers. Every 100 H2-B visas creates 464 additional jobs.

Author Rick Rouse weaves a tapestry of immigrant experiences—successes, hopes, challenges, and dreams that have often unfolded amidst global conflicts and political polarization. These narratives inspire compassion as “these least of these” search for a safe haven and discover how diversity enriches America and our faith. While the American story aspires to be the story of welcome and refuge for all, our history often tells a different story. As wars are raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, creating millions of refugees merely seeking safety, American politics remains so polarized that the government appears deadlocked or unable to act on meaningful solutions to immigration policies. In A Journey Called Hope, author Rick Rouse shares the stories of immigrants from around the world to America — their successes, hopes, challenges, and dreams. He explores how we can share our planet with the understanding that it is a matter of human dignity for all people to have a safe place to call home. In sharing these inspiring stories and hope-filled futures, Rouse assures us the United States is still a nation of promise made richer by its diversity.

The inspiring, true coming-of-age story of a ferociously determined young man who, armed only with his intellect and his willpower, fights his way out of despair. In 1993, Cedric Jennings was a bright and ferociously determined honor student at Ballou, a high school in one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods, where the dropout rate was well into double digits and just 80 students out of more than 1,350 boasted an average of B or better. At Ballou, Cedric had almost no friends. He ate lunch in a classroom most days, plowing through the extra work he asked for, knowing that he was really competing with kids from other, harder schools. Cedric Jennings’s driving ambition—which was fully supported by his forceful mother—was to attend a top college. In September 1995, after years of near superhuman dedication, he realized that ambition when he began as a freshman at Brown University. But he didn't leave his struggles behind. He found himself unprepared for college: he struggled to master classwork and fit in with the white upper-class students. Having traveled too far to turn back, Cedric was left to rely on his intelligence and his determination to maintain hope in the unseen—a future of acceptance and reward. In this updated edition, A Hope in the Unseen chronicles Cedric’s odyssey during his last two years of high school, follows him through his difficult first year at Brown, and tells the story of his subsequent successes in college and the world of work. Eye-opening, sometimes humorous, and often deeply moving, A Hope in the Unseen weaves a crucial new thread into the rich and ongoing narrative of the American experience.

Throughout history, creative writers have often tackled topical subjects as a means to engage and influence public discourse. American authors—those born in the States and those who became naturalized citizens—have consistently found ways to be critical of the more painful pieces of the country’s past yet have done so with the patriotic purpose of strengthening the nation’s community and future. In History and Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism, Ben Railton argues that it is only through an in-depth engagement with history—especially its darkest and most agonizing elements—that one can come to a genuine form of patriotism that employs constructive criticism as a tool for civic engagement. The author argues that it is through such critical patriotism that one can imagine and move toward a hopeful, shared future for all Americans. Railton highlights twelve works of American literature that focus on troubling periods in American history, including John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath,David Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Dave Eggers’s What Is the What. From African and Native American histories to the Depression and the AIDS epidemic, Caribbean and Rwandan refugees and immigrants to global climate change, these works help readers confront, understand, and transcend the most sorrowful histories and issues. In so doing, the authors of these books offer hard-won hope that can help point people in the direction of a more perfect union. History and Hope in American Literature will be of interest to students and practitioners of American literature and history.

Just years before America witnessed the turn of the century, the three eldest Stuart children left their home in the hills of Arkansas to pursue their dreams in the land of opportunity. Now they are back for a family reunion at the humble home they left years ago. In an unforeseeable turn of events, their visit is cut short when Lylah and Amos are required to return to the city as the world edges closer to war. Within months they find themselves and their brother Gavin deeply involved in the war efforts, but not in the ways they had ever expected. And as the conditions in Europe worsen, they must face a startling reality: before it's all over, the war could claim the life of one of their own. Will the Stuarts survive these tumultuous times and return to their family safe and sound? Or will World War I forever change the lives they know?

You're a rider…an independent spirit who's reluctant to follow someone else's road map. But there are thousands of miles of road out there, and you could spend months searching for the best ones. Gary McKechnie has spent years exploring the nation by bike, and these are his top rides, from the rocky New England coast to the wide-open West. McKechnie covers popular rides through Hudson River Valley, Amish Country, the Smoky Mountains and Georgia Hills, Washington State, the Pacific Coast, and everything in-between. In this fifth edition of his best-selling guide, McKechnie includes: Exciting new photographs of rides like the Hudson River Ralley Run, the Pacific Coast Run, and the Red Rocks Run New tips on the best food, shopping, and nightlife you'll experience along the way Don't waste your valuable two-wheeled vacation. Instead, let Great American Motorcycle Tours be your guide.