No, this is not a thread apologizing about how other nations see us badly. No, this is about reality, versus what commercials and TV portrays the "all-American lifestyle"......

For instance. A commerical just on for Comcast (now calling themselves "Xfinity"). They are promoting basically more service and more equipment in order to have start a movie in one room and finish it in another...this commercial says the bathroom! They show this large bedroom like bathroom with a flat screen TV on the wall. Really? Do people really have a TV in every room of their home, including their plush bathroom? Why would you be in there long enough to finish the movie?

Then there is the whole Christmas season...We all know how that is, the main reason so many people seek out mental health professionals more that time of year than any, and unfortunately, more instances of suicides. Depression caused by unreasonable expectations made impossible by all the advertising for everything to supposedly make you have a nice happy family and home, but.....

Then watching HGTV for the heck of it lately, and it is all about selling homes and buying, except it seems we're talking about it during a time when so many have lost their homes, maybe have none. These homes being sold or talked about are in the millions, in NY city, posh places with it all...not my reality, how about yours? I used to watch HGTV when it was about decorating on a dime, re-using your stuff to make it nice, creating a nice patio place with things you had, but not anymore.

I know these are just miniscule examples, and know many of you can think of stuff you have seen on TV that does not fit the reality of everyday working Americans lives.

So I had to wonder if this is the way that illegal immigrants and legal immigrants, think their lives are going to be when they come here? Do they truly believe that we all have 36 inch flat screen TV's in our bathrooms? I know I don't, it would get knocked off the wall for the sheer lack of space when someone was flinging the towel around their body (our bathroom is about 7 feet by 8 feet, no I am not kidding, I have seen wheelchair accessible outhouses bigger).

Do illegal aliens come here from their nation, mainly Mexico, thinking we are all wealthy enough to have what they see on TV? So do they think upon coming here they will get rich enough to live like the TV shows them we supposedly do, and then when reality hits, they believe it is somehow us keeping them from having it all, like some secret club we are just not letting them into?

Where we live, we have actually had kids who were friends of our kids, say that we were "rich". My son would laugh and ask what gave them that idea. Most said it was passed along by their parents to them, that all white people are rich, and just don't share it with others..... Then my son would say "so if we are rich, then why would we be living here?". We actually had one kid say he was told it was because we were hiding it (wish someone would tell me where).....OK.....

I truly think others come here thinking what they have seen in advertising and on shows out of the U.S., that we are all well to do and have all manner of money at our disposal, and then the groups such as LaRaza grasp that and lead them to believe we are just trying to cheat them all out of that. Propaganda to get them to jump on the ethno-centrics groups bandwagon.

Reality is, we work our backends off, we barely pay the bills, we hope to be able to actually have enough to get the kids food and needed shoes or clothing, but in the end the parents almost always put off needed things for themselves. We do not always own homes, or sometimes even cars, and having a "savings" account is a dream (maybe someday..).

That Comcast/XFinity commercial really made me wonder, do people really have TV's like that in their bathrooms? They made me even question if we are just a backwards American family, or is this just their advertising? Then if I can be made to question this reality, surely someone not from here see's this kind of advertising propoganda would be convinced it must be so, and this adds fuel to the fire for someone contemplating coming here illegally.