the shrewdness of apes

yesterday at the bus stop, a woman disrupted my perusal of the front page by saying to me "you weren't born in this country were you?" i assured her that i was, and she used that information to launch into a series of questions in which i was asked to explain why in a country such as this, people would be forced to work in sweatshops between 16th and 49th streets (i'm assuming she meant Brooklyn) and to live with 20 people crowded into a single studio apartment. she continued her monologue until her stop came, pointedly telling me how mcuh she loved America but that it was sad that criticism was frowned upon while criminals in the government and business worlds get away with so much. was she crazy? maybe. did she have a point? absolutely. was i left somewhat depressed and slack-jawed as she disembarked from the bus leaving me to contemplate how the base level of comfort i have come to expect in my life acts as an insulator against the problems that an enormous number of my fellow humans face every day? i sure was. do i have any idea what to do about it, knowing that even a Kerry victory in November will do little to alleviate these types of problems here or abroad? sadly, no.