America, land of opportunity. Yeah it is the land of opportunity but opportunity is not always equal everywhere you live.

I read it off and on here, some folks assume that everyone has the same opportunities wherever they live. These are the folks that argue that they had an easy time getting a job, going to a doctor or hospital or that getting a voter ID is as simple as cutting a piece of pie and eating it, so why can't everyone else do the same as they do it. I wonder how and where they get this idea from. Your life and your amount of opportunities is in no way a fine example for others for many reasons.

The amount of jobs is not the same everywhere, the amount of healthcare facilities is not the same, even the amount of stores to buy goods and services is not the same in every place you go. Here where I live there is only one doctor close by and the next available ones are more than a half hour drive from here. As long as I can drive I can get to a doctor but many of my older neighbors do not drive and there is no public transportation for them to get to anything. They need the assistance of family, friends and neighbors to help them, to go to the bank, buy food, get to a doctor or even visit a friend or loved one. And those people who help them have lives, jobs and responsibilities to take care of also. Everyday I see a life flight helicopter flying over to pick up people who need medical care right away. Sometimes they are flying them two hours away to a city hospital because the local one does not have the same amount of treatment and care facilities as the city hospital. The cost of this helicopter ride is a tremendous amount of money, especially for those who have no health insurance.

Some folks would say "hey, they can move to a better place with more opportunities" but there again is the assumption that they can do this fairly easy and are just too stubborn to take the opportunity to leave.

While your kids may walk to school or ride a bus that picks a bunch of them up at a certain bus stop the kids where I live have to get up extra early and wait alone at the end of a driveway for a bus that picks them up in ones and twos till they have everyone, many of those kids are on that bus for more than an hour, morning and after school. Rural schools do not have the same large tax base as city schools so the cost of educating kids here is much different than in a city. Many rural school districts have a wider range of communities that they service and their facilities are many times older and run down. This makes it harder for students to learn as much as they need to know in this day and age, and teachers and administrators are hard pressed to get more to help their students gain what they need to succeed. These rural schools have all the same problem as city schools but they do not have the same amount of, money opportunities and services to help their students to achieve success.

While you may pop out to the store to get one or two little things you need or want, many folks cannot just do that, they have to plan their shopping and then go and buy what they need till next pay because popping to the store is not an economically smart thing to do.

Many folks who live on small farms have a day job that might be many miles away and then they have to come home and work till dark on their farm. In rural areas there are fewer jobs and many more folks looking for work than in the city. It's just not the same here as in the city. Rural people may have to drive longer distances to work and that adds up the cost that you may not have where you live and work.

You may say "well that is their choice" and you are right, that is their choice many times, but not always. Some folks are stuck where they are for many reason that they cannot control.

So what's my point?

Well, my point is that you should not assume it is all the same life of many opportunities everywhere in our nation. Instead of arguing that everyone has it as easy as you do, think about how everybody does not have it as easy as you do. Everything is not as equal in America as you think.

We live in a large country with many different ways of life and many different amounts of opportunities. Learn that and you will understand more about others lives and their opportunities and their lack of opportunity. When you do that then you have more knowledge and understanding of others lives and the problems they face everyday.

Learning more about others lives in our country will help us all to achieve success as best we can, together.