For Americians
Today is a date that we hold as a sort of holiday with vauge and romantic notions of pilgrims and indians and corn and stuff. But I'd like to take this oportunity to remind you of your fortune.
"Here in America we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good, and by the world's standards even abundant lives." - Richard Nixon
quote:
If we could turn the population of the earth into a small community of 100 people, keeping the same proportions we have today, it would be something like this:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
14 Americans (from North and South America)
13 Africans
01 Australian (Oceania)
50 women
50 men
67 are not christian
33 are christian (Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox)
6 people own 59% of the entire wealth of the community
13 are hungry or malnourished
14 can't read
only 7 are educated at a secondary level
Of the village's total annual expenditures of just over US$ 3,000,000 per year:
US$ 181,000 is spent on weapons and warfare...
US$ 159,000 is spent on education...
US$ 132,000 is spent on health care.
If you keep your food in a refrigerator
And your clothes in a closet
You are richer than 75% of the entire world population.
If you have a bank account
You're one of the 30 wealthiest people in the world.
25 struggle to live on US$ 1.00 per day or less...
47 struggle to live on US$ 2.00 per day or less.
Work with passion
Love without needing to be loved
Appreciate what you have
And do your best for a better world.
Don't take the oportunity to scream unfair - but be greatful for where you are.
I'm not going to talk about turkey and Plymouth and Puritians, but instead let me hold your interest for a minitue with this.
When the Pilgrims and first Europeans arrived in the New World, they lived a life far from what their previous comforts in Europe might have been. They had to content with the wilderness, lack of supplies, food, isolated conditions, and so forth. They had no physical reason of comfort to leave their homes and travel an journy of passage across a inconvienent sea just to plop down here in the middle of nowhere. There are many reasons that they DID leave though. Some suffered REAL discrimination in their home countries where they were systematicly murdered or repressed, others were political refugues who's lives were REALLY in danger, and they joined with the pioneers to come here. They had no idea what they were starting at the time - this place soon became a profitable region of the Earth with good land, natural resources, and so on. It developed its own character, despite the myriad picture of peoples living here. Eventualy it wanted its own identity and achieved that. As times went on, the world rose from a time of technological and social medevilism to a new eara of changing things, of doing things different. We saw old-fashioned culture and socioty loose its power and during the 19th century Americia rose from its place as a small, new country to a recognizanable entity which others took in consideration rather than for granted. As the changing era continued, we rose to the occasion in WWII and as everyone knows, became a superpower. For real. What we said counted, and we had the power to do things that previously would have been unheard of. People mattered. Today we take that for granted or brush it of, bellowing the cry of minority among a vast sea of individuals and immorality in our govornment. But the truth is even where we are we stand far better off at this point than anyone in history has ever been. Things are actualy still getting better, despite the cynicism. Think about what you DO have, not what other people have, at this time and consider what you might not have, rather than what you want.
