Today I am Thankful... to live in America

On this day, The Marine Corps' birthday, I think it is appropriate to say how much I am thankful that I live in this country. We experience great freedoms that we take for granted everyday. The fact that people can protest the very thing that allows them to protest is a testament to that. We have the freedom to live how we want, believe in what we want, say what we want. As F.D.R. once said, the Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.

Not everyone in the world can say that:

- 79 per cent of the indigenous people in Peru are poor, and more than half live in extreme poverty.
- Some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are currently working, according to the International Labour Office (ILO). Of this total, some 120 million children are working full-time. Some 61% of child workers (153 million) are found in Asia; 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.
- 2 million girls each year are at risk of genital mutilation - approximately 6,000 per day.
- Many people in many countries live under the extreme control of their government. The government controls everything from the news they hear to the shows they watch on television.
- Dirty water kills 5000 children a day in sub-Saharan Africa. According to The Guardian, "Many sub-Saharan Africans get less than 20 litres of water a day and two-thirds have no proper toilets. By contrast, the average Briton uses 150 litres a day while Americans are the world's most profligate, using 600 litres a day. Phoenix, Arizona, uses 1,000 litres per person on average - 100 times as much as Mozambique."

We have it more than great here in the good Ol' USA and I hope that, no matter how much that is taken for granted, it is something that is never forgotten.