Take a close look at the flags you see flying today.

And when you do, think about just how good we’ve got it.

One tends not to appreciate what you have in terms of freedom and the ability to make a better life for yourself and your family if you never experience what it’s like not to be a citizen of this land.

Back in the 1980s, I had a chance to spend three weeks in Mexico covering Roseville’s sister city in Chignahuapan south of Mexico City in the state of Puebla.

The trip there in itself was an eye opener. We traveled past what was easily 10 continuous miles of makeshift shanties on the outskirts of Mexico City. The immense poverty was eye opening for two reasons: To be poor in the United States doesn’t mean you have to live in cardboard, wood, and debris cobbled together as shelter. At the same time, to be poor in a country like Mexico doesn’t mean you can’t have dignity. By any definition what we were passing were hovels but they were neat and clean.

Many of us moan and groan about how bad we have it in this country. And while things hopefully have changed for the better in Chignahuapan, the people I met felt blessed to have what they had.

• Public education: It was rare that most kids went to school past the sixth grade. They had to work in factories or fields to help feed their families. Besides paying for pencils and paper used in classrooms - something that families had to do - was a big luxury item.

• Sewage system: Raw sewage literally ran down the streets in ditches.

• Food safety: Meat was purchased at an outdoor public market where it wasn’t unusual to see dogs urinating around carcasses being butchered for cuts of meat. Flies were everywhere.

• Paved roads: There weren’t a lot of them. And the ones that existed were marred with indentions that make what we call potholes look inconsequential.

• Health care: During my stay, they were building a modern hospital that would be called Spartan at best in this country. There was still  a witch doctor practicing.

• Free speech: A husband-wife teaching team shared how they didn’t dare stray from exactly what the government in power at any given time dictated or they would lose their jobs.

• Electricity: It wasn’t super dependable to say the least.

• Middle Class: There wasn’t much of one. And those who comprised the Middle Class felt a moral obligation to look after others. The gentleman whose family hosted me made paint sprayers for Sears. His factory had been shut down for several months at that time due to a lack of orders, but he still felt an obligation to continue paying his workers. His rationale: They have to survive and his family would be no where without their skills and labor.

Having said all that, people seemed genuinely happy to have what they had. They didn’t complain. And even though their material wealth was modest, if that, they opened their hearts and homes to strangers.

It is against that backdrop that I judge my lot as a United States citizen.

The wealth we enjoy here - whether we are rich or poor - is unparalleled. We just think we have it rotten because we don’t know any better.

There is a reason why when people around the globe see the Star Spangled Banner they see the same things our forefathers did - hope, opportunity, liberty, and the freedom to try to make a better life.

Hopefully today - and every day for that matter - when we see Old Glory that we’re not just simply proud to be an American but understand that we are truly fortunate and blessed to be living in the United States of America.



This column is the opinion of managing editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209-249-3519.