An Independence Day thought...a few days later

We truly live in the one of the most amazing countries in the world.

I was messaging with someone just now about my desire to distinguish myself in my writing and become a political author and journalist and how it was difficult because there are literally a million blogs online and acquiring the bonafides to be a respected, called-upon voice takes time, effort and luck and I stopped myself and wrote the line:

'woe is me, right?...as I type this, some kid just died of starvation in Darfur and some woman is getting her skull cracked in an Iranian torture room for speaking out against her own government and here I am crying because I'm not famous yet.'

And I thought just how much we take for granted in this country. Very few Americans are "poor" by world standards. Our impoverished would honestly be lower middle class in most parts of the world.

A kid from Uganda or Cambodia might very well starve to death if he can't find food. A child in the mountains of Chile or the slums of Palestine that cannot afford higher education simply does not get educated. A woman in need of medical services in war-torn Somalia might just be plain out of luck.

Here in this country, if I took any of those people and plopped them on our shores within a week they would be fed daily, housed, clothed, given medical treatment, spending cash and be well on the path to being able to attend university classes for free and attend no-cost job training.

"Poor" kids in this country don't realize that OPPORTUNITY is wealth. It's not abut how much money the government or the church down the street just put in your pocket. It's about whether or not you have the chance to make it on your own. Are the lights green on your avenue or are they all red. In many parts of the world, they are, and will always be, red unless you pay off that crooked sheriff or you perform an 'act' for that local official.

That's what many folks don't get and don't understand. That simply having the option to go to college or find job training or having a country that has an apparatus by which you may enjoy the basic necessities of life is a TREMENDOUS life advantage and one that is to be recognized and seen as the blessing that it is.

I see this as I watch a kid from the South Bronx grow up to take her place as a trailblazer and a legend of tenacity, will, sacrifice and daring. Nothing in Sonia Sotomayor's early story said 'oh...you're destined to be a Supreme Court Justice one day.' She MADE that happen with her natural intelligence, her family's love and standard and a public education system just begging to be used as a stepping stone.

Sorry for the rah rah patriotic moment...and I'm not saying that we don't need to do more work to further perfect our union because we absolutely do...but we also need to stop, sometimes, and realize just how good we have it here. Many of us that were born and raised here that take these things for granted. Of course, this message doesn't apply to first generation immigrants who saw all these things a long time ago and put action behind will and decided to come to the shining land of opportunity known as America.