The BBC News site is my source for world news. I may only read the headlines, but I feel more aware of worldly happenings than if I had no news intake at all.

At times, I'm deeply disturbed by what I find on the BBC News.

One of today's:
Hundreds of Nigerian robbers shot

Though the current police inspector general of Nigeria has been in office for only 100 days, he admits that 785 "suspected armed robbers" have been shot, murdered, without fair trial in the last three months. That is, 90 days.

The appalling daily average, then, is around 9 suspected armed robbers killed each day of those three months.

I'm deeply grateful to live in the United States where we have a fairly decent judicial system. No, it might not be perfect, and yes, some innocent people probably are put behind bars, maybe even sentenced to the death penalty.

But most of the the institutions here work. If they don't, they generally don't result in hundreds of murdered people for no reason (note the generally).

I'm grateful to live in a place where the streets aren't lined with military personnel with huge guns, where I don't fear losing my life or my possessions daily, where I know I am free to not only believe what I want, but to voice those beliefs, my opinions, without fearing political, personal, or any sort of repercussions.

I can talk a lot of crap about our government and institutions and the atrocious health care system in this country, but I am eternally grateful that I was born here, that I've grown up here, where I'm free. Where I have more, in nearly every sense of the word, than millions, if not billions of others around the globe. How blessed we truly are.