Poor people

Sometimes when I look around the country, I am surprised at how the lives of poor people have improved during my life time. My wife was born on a farm in North Dakota during the depression in a family of 16 children. They had no running water, no indoor plumbing and no electricity. They wore hand me down clothes that their mother made and for birthdays they had a cake which they shared. Imagine hanging on to the rope line to make it safely to the out house so you would get lost and freeze to death in the back yard during a blizzard. Entertainment was going to church on Sunday, weather permitting. Babies were born at home and the only vaccine was small pox so the kids got all the childhood diseases that kids today don't have to worry about. The closest neighbor was a way off so families learned to depend on each other. In many places around the world life is not much different today but America is the land of opportunity. The future is bright for those who are willing to take advantage of the freedoms we enjoy.