Proud to be an American

Eleven years later, we all remember.  And now as I lay comfortably in bed, with my debit card handy and air conditioning ready at the push of a button, I realize how lucky I am.  Today I am going to InterPol with a passport copy and cash to get a long term visa here.  I come from a wealthy country with good foreign diplomacy that allows me to study, travel, and have beyond basic rights.  It's so simple yet so complex.

Here in Bolivia things are different.  Not having a good mastery of Spanish, I haven't yet been able to really find the pulse of things here.  But I hear stories, and I see signs, and the news shows demonstrations, and slowly I will piece the picture together.  Things here are broken in many ways.  I don't have a good sense of President Evo Morales, except he is not well received in Santa Cruz, the largest city (the government sits in La Paz, which is the mountainous high plain area in the east).  

A scanning search on Google acclaims Evo as a world hero.  He won the "2009 World Hero of Mother Earth" award for the UN.  On democracynow.org (a trustworthy organization) it further describes his commitment to the environment and the people.  On wikipedia, it talks of him making an unprecedented 57% cut of his salary to $1875/month. 

But these stories of Evo say nothing of what I hear around the town.  Like the highways to help export the coca leaf (cocaine) he planned to plow through villages with 3 almost-extinct indigenous groups.  Or the $1875 salary that now serves as a cap for many salaries, including public doctors, which deters higher education.  And how at our public hospital no one over the age of 5 has insurance, and yesterday one of our patients died of an arrhythmia very preventable by an implantable defibrillator.  

No, the United States is not perfect, but it is a country I feel extremely fortunate to be from.  Thanks to the men and women defending us.  The other day, Nate told me about his newest story pitch- go to Afghanistan to embed with one of the first and last troops in the area.  I cried all day.  Yesterday he explained to me why: the longest war in American history is still going on, with not one mention in either the RNC or DNC last week.  There is a story that must be told and this is his calling.  So yes, Nate, I have your back.  And we all await the tale of America finally finishing this chapter...