Afghanistan Report - Being Grateful

My son's observations from Afghanistan are beginning to trickle in. Unfortunately, they're not going to come as often or be as long as I had hoped. Here is his first report:

The roads of Afghanistan are in total disrepair. A common job - in fact, something you will see everywhere - is filling in the horrible potholes with dirt and standing by or in the road waiting for donations from passers-by for your efforts. The tragic thing is that most of the people who do this are children between the ages of five and ten. I saw a six or seven year-old child today holding a shovel twice his height, covered in dust from the road, and inhaling fumes from unchecked vehicles next to his refugee camp built from trash and mud. He was standing by the road making the motion for "water," implying he didn't want money. He wanted potable water for his family. We were unable to stop and give him anything due to security protocol.

I feel disgusted and enraged as I write this, thinking of that boy. He has nothing and, most days, will receive nothing, much less be able to go to school and learn to read. The only thing his family probably owns is a Koran which, if I visited with them, they would insist I take as a gift. The United States is such a privileged country . Most of us don't know it. So many complain about all our problems and how hard life is. When we, as social scientists, speak of the dregs of the world, the unwanted, the impoverished, the forgotten, the ones without hope for advancement, that boy is the one we speak of. Yet, he was smiling.