I don't always agree with Thomas Sowell, but how could any rational person not appreciate him. This was another great article by an exceptional person.

Re: wade mathias
I am impressed with Mr Sowell eloquence and simplicity in his articles. I am envious of his gift in writing and his ability to communicate his point.
I would like to add a life experience which illustrates his point about underdogs, and how attitude dictates how they cope with a difficult world. I volunteered in a poor area of Omaha. I wanted to work with these kids and find a way to help them obtain a college degree. I was willing to pay for part or maybe all of that expense.
The problem however was not the money but the desire that they had relative to getting a good education.
I understand that these kids have had to overcome prejudice, and problamatic family situations. Unfortunately
their attitude was that the world owed them something. For some reason they were not motivated to try and overcome their situation.
I subsequently took a trip to Africa. I went to a private school funded by a church. The teachers had not been paid in six months, but they were still working. The building was a old chicken coop with newspaper tacked to inside walls. In Kenya they provide for elementary education but not secondary. Their families were too poor to pay for public school education. Many of them could not even afford this subsidized private school tuition.
The kids were walking one to two hours just to get to school. There was a beautiful young lady that was working full time as a maid, just so she could go to secondary school. What is amazing was that in spite of all these adversities their attitudes were so positive.
They had aspirations to be astronauts, writers, scientists, teachers and other worthy professions. Realtive to those fantastic young people in Africa, we in America have so much more oportunity, just because of where we were born. Even the poorest of our poor. Yet I can tell you, that inspite of The African Children's less oportunity, I bellieve that their life is better than many of the young adults I encountered in Omaha. Not because of there economic situation. But because of their spirit and attitude.
I wish I could have transorted the young people from Omaha to Kenya so they could see this first hand. Possibly it might change some of them.
Chris Held
Chris

Re: chris held sorry this reply should say Re: Underdogs a previous article written by Thomas Sowell Not Re: wade mathias