This NY Times story reprises a topic that has been printed about all over the country - that of Chinese pregnant women who spend thousands of dollars to enter the US illegally just to give birth to their children on US soil. After giving birth, these women return to China, the only benefit of their travails being the U.S. birth certificate of their offspring, granting them automatic American citizenship.

For me, this begs the question: how many of us are valuing our U.S. citizenship and would be willing to sacrifice equally to what these women have to go through for the sake of their children? Are we really aware of how fortunate we are to live in a country where the political police doesn't tear down our doors in the middle of the night to drag us and our loved ones to be tortured and/or sent to some hellish gulag for the "crime" of speaking up our minds freely? Do we appreciate often enough the clean water that our children are drinking, the fresh air they are breathing, the plentiful food they are eating? Are we thankful enough that we can worship freely our God, or conversely, that we do not have to worship any deity should we choose not to?

Read the whole story at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/us/29babies.html