Another Day in America By Dr. Juan Harrison
Another Day in America
The sun is shining. The day is cold. Leadership of our country just changed peacefully with no noticeable conflict or rebellion. In earlier days we gave little thought to anything but a peaceful transition of power. A lot of places around the world couldn’t or can’t make that assumption.
I return home to a warm house with a cozy fireplace near a chair where I watch the day’s festivities. The electricity keeps my lights on. The city keeps water running through my pipes. The pantry is full of food. I’m stuffed from my delicious meal at the local Mexican food place in the nearby shopping center. For dessert my wife tosses me a fudge sickle from our kitchen.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to see a lot of the world and compare how people live in other places verses life here. I made conscious decisions to enable myself to have the opportunity to travel and visit the rest of the world to help me get a better picture of life in other places. Those experiences I acquired as a young man helped give me a clearer picture of life around the world.
Overseas I experienced higher gas and food costs. I was put on a 2-year waiting list for a phone. Any type of service seemed slower and more expensive. My choices were much more limited there. Government-backed health care offered slower response and poorer quality.
All in all, I had to rate my country near the top for the overall quality of life. I experienced more government control and generally less freedom than in America. Returning to my fast-food drive thru world I felt like life had just sped up a few notches. The newer, faster pace of life took a little getting used to.
I can truthfully say that no place I lived or visited provided the overall opportunities and variety of experiences that my old home country offered me. Most things overseas seemed old; things here seemed much newer and up to date. I enjoyed seeing and visiting many of the Wonders of the World. Given a choice, I’d take my homeland of opportunity and less government where I felt freer to take my destiny into my own hands, win or lose, and set my own limits, not have them set for me. America can be a place of unlimited opportunities to rise or fall, sink or swim, fail or succeed. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thank you, I’d rather do it myself. Half the fun of reaching for the stars is the journey itself. I hope our country never settles for just okay.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
