Dreams and Visions for America
Kevin Probst
10-19-2025
“...your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.” - Joel 2:28
I have finally reached the age where I spend more time reflecting on the past. I feel very fortunate. I have lived a very comfortable life, not because I had done anything to deserve it but because a previous generation of young men had a vision for future generations of Americans. They envisioned a world of freedom and liberty, a world of comfort and prosperity for their offspring. Many left the comforts of home to fight a war so their children and grandchildren might live in a better world than they had. Their sacrifices were immense. Some made the ultimate sacrifice.
My own father survived the last World War, but he carried the scars of war upon his heart for the remainder of his days. He was a medic at a hospital in France that received the wounded and the dying. He saw firsthand the price paid by thousands of young Americans so that the next generation, my generation, might live in the greatest, most powerful, and wealthiest country in the world’s history. Their sacrifice made it possible for my generation to experience the best of times.
I have never suffered hunger. I have never lacked good healthcare. I have been inundated with blessings that are mostly taken for granted. My entire life has been filled with good, caring, and Christian people. My career as an educator, 42 years and counting, has been wonderfully rewarding. I’m not claiming to have no regrets. I made many mistakes along the way and experienced many failures, but God has certainly given me far more than I deserve.
Several years ago, a lumber company harvested all the pine trees and hardwoods on 200 acres of property adjacent to mine. It was sad to see. After they had finished, it looked like a wasteland, a war zone. Beauty was destroyed and replaced by ugliness. The owner, an elderly man, told me that most of the trees would be used to make railroad ties. A few weeks later, he had a crew of men plant pine seedlings throughout the entire acreage.
As I watched this old man oversee the work of plugging thousands of seedlings into the soil, I knew that it would take anywhere from twenty to forty years for these small plants to mature to harvest size. He would not live long enough to harvest them. He was planting for the next generation.
Old men dream dreams. Young men have visions. I have taught thousands of young people in my career as a teacher. As I approach the end of the road, I often ask myself, What is their vision for the future? How deeply devoted are they to that vision? What sacrifices are they willing to make to see their vision realized? Do they even have a vision?
I knew about Charlie Kirk before he was assassinated. I had listened to his testimony. I heard him tell the story of how he was impacted by an older man who took him under his wing and invested greatly in him. Bill Montgomery met 18-year-old Charlie after he had spoken at a small college. He mentored Charlie and co-founded TPUSA with him in 2012. He died of COVID complications in 2020 at the age of 80.
An assassin’s bullet could not stymie an old man’s dream and a young man’s vision. Rather, an explosion of growth occurred for TPUSA.
It wasn’t until after his death that I realized the tremendous impact Charlie Kirk had on his generation. An old man with a dream gave guidance to a young man with a vision, and together they influenced millions of people. We need more of both. It feels like the future of our country is in peril. We need more gifted old men with dreams to mentor brave and devoted young men with visions for the sake of future American generations.
