Right off the top, let me say that this is not a political statement! I feel about politics the way I feel about religion: it seems to be a necessary evil, it is obviously and inevitably a part of our lives, and everybody is entitled to their own opinion about it....but please do not share your opinions with me! I have enough going on in my head without having to listen to another person's thoughts on the subject!
No, this is about the smallness of so many peoples' mindsets. Over the years, while growing up in Latin America and coming home once a year to this glorious country, where the water is safe to drink, where there is grass growing around the houses, where you do not have to worry about something you eat in a restaurant or out of a fast food truck giving you diarrhea and/or dysentery, where the streets are paved and there are sidewalks alongside them for walking, where you can drive for days without going through border checks and inspections of everything you have with you....I just cannot begin to say the joy I would feel in crossing into my beautiful, clean, amazing country--the United States of America!
I remember my first encounters with people complaining about the United States...I was fairly young--maybe 15??--and even then my first thought was, "Well...they need to go down to Chiapas and live for a few months! THEN they would appreciate living in such a wonderful country!"
Why do you suppose there are so many people clamoring to get into our country? There are people of all ages, who love their homes, yet who would do anything--I mean risk their lives, walk for hundreds of miles on bare feet, cross deadly oceans, stowaway in the most terrifying ways...all to come to this place we are so fortunate...SO VERY FORTUNATE... to call home. Do you not understand how very, very, very lucky you are to be here??
I truly think that if you, as an American, do not deeply and appreciate love this United States of America, then you need to go away to another place and live for awhile, until you do...and believe me, you will so very much appreciate it!
(Granted, there are expatriates who are very happy with living in another country. But they are living as the Privileged Few and not as a Local Villager. More money than everyone else around you always makes life easier... )
So, on this day of celebrating the United States of America, please look around you. Appreciate your good fortune of living in this beautiful, diverse, and awe-inspiring country. Celebrate America!
Woot woot! I agree 100%!