Saturday, July 09, 2005

Putting things in perspective,

I tend to think that manyAmericans today fail to realize that poverty as the world knows it, does not exist in the United States. Sure there are poor people there always will be; but what Americans regard as "poor" would be a Godsend to citizens of other countries. Thanks to my good parents who did an exceptional job of raising me, I never had to live in poverty as my father did during his childhood. But my father has a better understanding of what "poor" means now that he has experienced it first hand. To me having no gas money makes me poor; poor to my father meant not owning a car at all when he was young. Poor to me means only making $100 dollars a week; poor to my father meant working in the fields from sunrise to sundown just to have food to eat. A singer by the name of Craig Morgan illustrated this good in a song called Paradise. Craig was a soldier during the Panama invasion, and upon coming back to America he realized how good and rich America was for the first time in his life.

Once I was a soldier and not afraid to die.
Now I'm a little older and not afraid to cry.
Everyday I'm thankful just to be alive.
When you've been where I've been any kind of life....is paradise.
If you've been where I've been any kind of life.....is paradise.
It's paradise.......paradise.
--Craig Morgan