U.S. PROBLEMS MODEST BY WORLDWIDE STANDARDS

One pursuit in which America takes second place to no other nation in the world is handwringing over domestic problems. During last fall's campaign, many candidates did well by declaring this nation on a sure course to "hell in a handbasket." Anxiety levels have risen since an apparent terrorist bombing in New York City. The national debt is pushed beyond the ciphering capacity of most calculators. Many on the left miss no opportunity to lambaste the religious right as zealots, and many on the right don't hesitate to define the left as socialists. Some perspective is needed.

A few hour's run of the Associated Press international wire Friday produced these stories:

In Bombay, India, a series of car bomb explosions killed at least 41 people and injured another 250. (Ultimately, more than 300 were reported dead from the blasts.)

In Konjevic Polje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, British soldiers on a mission of mercy re~mained trapped by Serbian shelling and Muslim protests.

North Korea withdrew from an international nuclear accord, a move focusing more attention on suspicions that nation is developing atomic weapons.

In Moscow, Russian President Boris Yeltsin walked out of a special parliamentary session a day after hard-line Communist lawmakers voted to restrict his authority in moving that nation toward democracy.

In Cambodia, United Nations investigators collected more evidence implicating Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the massacre of 34 ethnic Vietnamese last week.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, an Israeli woman was axed and stabbed to death, apparently was killed by Palestinians, and a Palestinian teen-ager was fatally shot during a stone-throwing incident in the West Bank.

In San Jose, Costa Rica, gunmen demanding $6 million in ransom and the ouster of top Nicaraguan government officials held 16 hostages at the Nicaraguan Embassy.

And Friday morning produced no big news from other global trouble spots, such as Somalia, South Africa, Haiti or Iraq.

The United States has problems. However, it also has 93 percent of its willing work force employed, even during economically uncertain times. While many different opinions are advanced in America, the opposing factions don't engage in open warfare; last week's shooting in Florida of a doctor who performed abortions was news as a rarity rather than a common occurrence. The melting pot of cultures and ethnic backgrounds boils over occasionally, but the United States is not a nation in crisis. Americans enjoy freedoms on a daily basis that are the envy of citizens throughout the world.

In the context of world events, America's problems don't stand up very well. As Americans, sometimes it's difficult to see that.