A Poverty of Ambition?

"There’s nothing wrong with making money, but focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself, and in the end, I suspect, will leave you unfulfilled.”
~ Barack Obama* to students of the Campus Progress National Student Conference, 2006. (Source, source)

I finally found something that is a bit of consolation and counterpoint to the strange pronouncements over the past few days. The reality of those who 'serve the country' in one form or other seems to be quite different from the weird straw man arguments I'm hearing. Many of the folks I see seem to do their jobs out of a fair bit of idealism. I wasn't quite aware of this sort of thing before, but in these few weeks of Basic Training, it has become quite apparent to me. The Newspaper has been working overtime to bring out feature articles about the work done by the various Departments. Today's article is on the Learning Branch, and I like what I'm reading. I think overall, we have a good system working here, all things considered. All thanks to the rank and file who possess quite a fair bit of 'admirable sentiment', I reckon. :)

*President of the United States in 2008, conditions apply.