It´s great to be an American.  Let me repeat.  It is an unparalleled privilege to be an American.  Why, you ask?  Can you spell corruption?  Or better, the relative lack of it by third world standards. 

Listening to the stories we cover every week about strange people, the bizarre things they do, and the lengths to which people with money and power will go to to extend their dominion can give you a cynical view of America.  Fret no more comrades.  For a fresh pick me up in patriotism, apple pie and family values, just visit a third world country every couple years.  It´s good therapy for those who are troubled by our ´warts´, and a real booster for you and me….the folks who want to preserve our goodness....

We had a great dive trip in Cozumel, one of the most popular ports of call for cruisers, and home of the Palancar reef, one of the planets best dive spots.  We ate well, found new friends, visited the local hangouts and talked about-what else-politics.  What we heard was sobering, and affirmed the truths we all forget once in a while.  Truths like: 

·        Endemic political centralization stifles economic growth and kills hope

·        Nefarious enterprise unpunished sucks an economy dry

·        Populations will take the less productive road, when hope and incentives are rare commodities

·        Infrastructure drives an economy;  without it, squalor dominates the landscape behind the façade.

·        Folks will sacrifice tremendously, and even forsake their homeland, in pursuit of what we take for granted….the American dream of enterprise and the opportunitiy to succeed.

This last point is perhaps the most poignant, and was brought home by our visit with Owe (pronounced oo-vee), the 27 year old Norwegian native who is in Mexico getting his masters in Spanish so he can be a translator for all the Europeans (many of them his countrymen) who are flocking to Spain to buy homes and need help navigating legalese in a foreign tongue.  How is this son of a school teacher paying his way?  Playing virtuoso classical guitar for tourists eating at La Veranda, a romantic garden spot with first class dining island syle.  I´m telling you, this guy plays like Montoya.  But I digress.  He told of Norway´s “trap” of socialism, lulling the populace into faux security by creating inflated government salaries, offering apparently low interest rates for students to study abroad, but expecting payment in inflated Kröoners.  Impossible at starting wages, he told us.  He said he would do “anything” to “escape” Norway and it´s strangle hold on those who would break out.  More on this next Saturday. 

Then there was Geraldo, no not the one you´re thinking about, but the jewelry salesmen I engaged about everything from the lack of a middle class here in Mexico to the people´s thoughts on Americans like you and me who recognize illegal aliens for the criminals they are.  His take?  You guessed it!  He doesn´t endorse it.  What´s more, he recognized that many come here to “do bad, like gangs and stealing”.  Are you listening Geraldo Rivera, John McCain and Nancy Pelosi?  Asked point blank if he thought hard working Americans who resent the net economic drain on our hard earned wages are racist, he quickly yelped…not at all.  Then he went inot a diatribe about back stabbing fellow workers who don´t lift one another up and compared them to Americans who “do reach into the water and help the one below from drowning”.

So folks, take pride in what we have, and commit to work even harder this election season to preserve and strengthen what separates us from all the rest.  We honor enterprise, freedom, small government, and the value of one another looking out for ourselves, rather than the predatory state dressed up in friendly sheep´s clothing.