By now it should be clear that there won't be any economic bail-out money for small businesses. There will be no hundreds of billions of dollars spent propping us up. Although small business is the backbone of the American economy -- we really do make over half of everything that happens in this country happen -- it turns out that, unlike our "big business" cousins, we are not, in fact, "too big to fail." It seems that, once again, no one is coming to our rescue, and we are on our own.

And that's just fine! On our own is how we do it best. On our own is how we can be inventive and clever. It's on our own that the most intense passions of our entrepreneurial spirits flourish. We're always at our best when we are on our own -- and they leave us alone. On our own is how we bootstrap our way to something real and true. If big business is forever screwing things up, then we are forever putting things back together. Oh yes, they have really screwed things up this time. But as long as small business still gets up in the morning and makes something happen, as long as we continue to follow a dream, to fill the craving, to reach and to stretch, as long as we still have a vision and the will to pursue it, we'll be ok. Our children will be ok. Our country will be ok. We will all be ok, because we can do this thing, however daunting it may seem just now. Small business can rebuild our economy and Express is here to help. Now let's get to work!