I Bit Into Ice and Social Ills

I bit into ice and I didn't recoil or cringe. It wasn't painful or shocking. It's the little luxuries that you never thought about that hit you the hardest when you escape poverty. My teeth were always so sensitive from cavities that I couldn't really touch ice to them without drilling pain into myself.

Are there really people out there that can afford to go to a dentist whenever there's a problem? Did they really grow up being able to bite into ice?

In America we don't even think about it. Perhaps we've spent so long thinking about other things so we don't have to face the truth, that it is entirely natural for us to just let these things go. We don't think about the last time we went to the dentist or the doctor. We don't like to remember that it's the prohibitive cost that keeps us away. What we do like to do is create problems to get our minds off of things. Meaningless things that are easier to think about than social ills.

A country is only as rich as its poorest people. America is a very poor nation. We just don't like to think about it. We don't like to think about the little luxuries and instead cling to what we do have. It's easier that way.