I was reading Chrenkoff's blog about the "Good News From Iraq," and I came across this part:

A Maine resident, meanwhile, is helping Iraqi chldren through sports: "Alan Johnston, a soccer referee in central Maine, recently helped outfit a small band of Iraqi children with soccer balls, T-shirts and shorts after watching kids playing with rocks and metal cans." Johnson, who was employed in Iraq as private security contractor, saw during his travels around the country Iraqi children trying to play soccer in the most difficult of circumstances. He says: "They would play soccer in an open area of dirt and use rocks for goals or (use) pieces of pipe sticking up from the ground... The kids played in their bare feet and would kick anything they could find that would roll." The report continues: "The children struck a chord with Johnston, who played high school soccer in Greenville and is a high school, college and youth referee. His own children played soccer at Erskine Academy in South China. Johnston contacted Carol Woodcock, executive director of Soccer Maine, who sought out vendors to provide soccer balls, T-shirts and shorts.

"Shipments began arriving last spring and were erratic because Johnston didn't stay in the same place for too long. But he finally had everything in hand last month, and he began doling out the equipment on Sept. 27. Under heavy guard, Johnston went to a dump where he had observed many of the local children scavenging for anything usable and distributed his treasure trove of 48 sets of shorts and T-shirts and 22 soccer balls. 'The kids were ecstatic and they came running from all over,' he said. 'It seemed like (they) were crawling out from under rocks. We had a hard time to control them and get them into a line so I could give (the equipment) out'."

Next time you complain because you have a shitty 19" TV for entertainment instead of a widescreen 52" plasma TV, or because your Nike's are two years old and you can't afford to buy the most recent style, or your crummy job pays you so little that you can't pay off all your bills on your first month's check, try and remember what these kids had to go through. They were playing soccer IN THEIR BARE FEET KICKING AROUND ROCKS, fer Christsakes!

We have it pretty damned-good here in America; and even when times look tough, at least you can count on your ability to get to work without a car bomb blowing up next to your place of employment, or having some religious wacko pouring hate into your head 24-seven to get you to perform "acts of martyrdom."