Sometimes we need to look around the world and draw some perspective. Let’s look at Europe for a moment.

In October, more than 200,000 immigrants fled across the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe.

Now stop and think. How bad must one’s homeland be to make such a perilous journey, literally putting your life on the line? How poor and ravaged is such a nation (Syria and Iraq) and how inept and/or corrupt is their “leadership?”

Nearly 3,500 immigrants have died or have been reported missing in the Mediterranean crossing. And for those who did survive, they are finding themselves in countries that are not equipped to handle such an influx. Winter is fast coming on and many of these immigrants are facing hunger and sickness at the end of their journey. The European Union is looked upon as the body to address such an incredible challenge, and it is struggling.

As we say, we should draw some perspective and appreciate that on our worst day here in the U.S. we are not facing the plight of these immigrants nor of those who would receive them. For the most part, these immigrants have reached that point of “nothing left to lose.”

We often find ourselves complaining about a lot things, mostly about our leadership. Yet, we will quickly resolve that we are in near perfect working order compared to some other nations. That’s not to say that we should not seek to make our situation better — indeed we should — but to keep in mind that we are not a Third World country because our system works more times than it fails. And, of course, while we seek to reboot our philosophical software,  to appreciate the plight of others whose fortunes are not as great. Let’s keep in mind, that nothing we did caused us to be born in the good old U.S.A. We were lucky.