What a Great Country

On most of my flights around the country I try to get an aisle seat, preferring the extra leg room. Because of runway delays I missed a flight to a talk in Reno, NV last week and had to take an early morning one which was virtually full. Fortunately, I didn’t get a middle aisle seat but a window one. I’m glad that I did.

Instead of my normal habit of burying my head in a book or magazine or working on my computer, I spent a lot of the time looking at the landscape from 30,000 feet. This is an immense country! There are a lot of wide open spaces and room to grow. I’ve often thought that I would love to take one of the many “tree huggers” from cities like New York on a ride in our helicopter to see all of the trees and vastness of this great country.

An article by Robert Bruegmann, a professor from the University of Illinois at Chicago, who recently wrote the book Sprawl states, “The entire urban and suburban population of the United States, could fit comfortably into Wisconsin at suburban densities. Moreover, the amount of land set aside permanently for parks and wildlife areas has grown faster than urban land.”

As I compare us to other countries around the world, from both an economic and sociological standpoint, I can’t think of another one that comes close to what they have accomplished to date nor that has a better future than what exists in the USA. We are truly blessed to live in a country that celebrates and reveres freedom as we do here. Today is a day to reflect upon what our forefathers went through to give us such a place to call home.

Happy Independence Day!