How Did America Become So Great?

Legal immigrants from around the world came to the New World to work hard, find land, and worship freely. Many died in the process during the arduous voyage across the sea, in the wilderness they were attempting to settle, from industrial accidents in factories they toiled in, from disease, or in battles with the natives.

All had to stop at Ellis Island for proper identification and quarantine when necessary. They were desperate but proud men and women who did not immigrate to become wards of the welfare system because there was none to be had. They had to work hard in order to survive. No hapless taxpayers were supporting the new arrivals and nobody waved the country’s flag where they hailed from. Most learned English as soon as they could no matter what level of education they had.

Today the legal immigrants fly in with papers and medical records and immigration authorities check the thoroughly and register their arrival. But the illegal immigrants cross the border themselves at great health risk, leaving behind a huge trail of trash, or cross with the help of expensive coyotes, or are herded into the country by government buses in the dead of night and on planes without proper health screenings.

Caravans of invading armies of illegals from Honduras and El Salvador have already jumped the fence at various points of the border, aided and abetted by Mexico, closer to California, where Democrat officials welcomed them with open arms and pockets at taxpayer expense while America’s poor and veterans are ignored.  Nobody knows or cares whether these illegals are sick, financially able to support themselves, able to work, and, most importantly, whether they are friends or foes of America.

Some legal immigrants were turned back at Ellis Island, their dreams shattered by disease. Many had to wait out the quarantine before they earned admission to the New World, an old world but new because it was full of possibilities and opportunities to settle the land.

These legal immigrant men and women built roads, bridges, towns, cities, skyscrapers, cars, airplanes, rockets, and the best medicine in the world. They built factories, invented drugs that saved millions around the world, created machines, built hospitals, ports, and our current civilization. They were armed, fierce, and fought in many wars.

They were Americans first who cherished their ethnic roots at home and during the holidays. They were free to invent, to experiment, to be themselves, but also be part of a larger and important whole. They cherished their families and God had a prominent place in their lives. And they made America great for many subsequent generations who appreciated the sacrifice and work of the previous generations and of their elders.

In the late 1970s, as a newly arrived legal immigrant who luckily escaped communism, I met a lot of nice, well-meaning, pleasant, happy, and ill-informed Americans and I wondered then, how did America become so great with so much willing and shameless ignorance? Now, forty years later, I have my answer.

People were not ashamed to say that they knew so little history and geography. They were enterprising and willing to work hard. They understood patriotism and respect for their elders. Their world revolved around family, happiness, consumerism, and church, all set within a certain mile radius of bucolic neighborhoods, streets, and towns they knew and loved.

Americans treasured their roads and had a love affair with big cars and the mobility that said cars afforded them, but they took for granted the freedom to use them, to move where a gambling spirit took them, the wide open spaces were theirs to take if they so desired.

Nobody stopped them or legislated them into high-rise, mixed use, tiny apartments or forced them into tin cans on wheels in order to save the planet from a manufactured global warming crisis. There was no Democrat New Green Deal to curtail freedom of movement, flying, forcing people to bike to work, and forbidding fossil fuels.

Students dozed off in history classes and shrugged their shoulders when they knew very little about their own country and government. Communism and millions of victims of it, you say? That might as well be a dark specter on another planet; it would never find its way here. We are Americans!

People with a lot of education and experience were no longer allowed in Jimmy Carter’s Department of Education-controlled classrooms. They could not take just anybody off the streets with a degree, as I was told a few times, one had to be licensed by the Department of Education and a member in good standing of the National Education Association.

Generous to a fault and eager to jump and help their fellow man, many Americans I’ve met would give the shirt off their backs if one asked. They naively helped many people in times of trouble, even those that bit the hands that fed them.

They talked optimistically about the freedoms they had and felt sorrow for those around the world who were not so free. America was great, they said, and it was first at everything because they were fearless and took chances to succeed. Family was very important, children were disciplined without fear of arrest by the government, and church and faith were very important to most Americans.

Americans were free to be self-sufficient and self-reliant; they were not free to freeload. There was no internet to bombard the public with constant fake news, communist indoctrination, miscommunication and misinformation. Political corruption was hidden, communists were enemies, and socialism was abhorrent. The best and the brightest succeeded. In time, excellence has been replaced by mediocrity and collectivism. The idea that everyone is special and equal gave birth to the award for walking without tripping or the award for just existing.

Each community had Christian churches and temples that united them in worship and principles. Everyone understood that God was an essential ingredient in the founding of America and life was precious inside and outside of the womb. Nobody killed babies for research or replacement parts.

Schools were run by each state and by counties, not Jimmy Carter’s Department of Education with Bill Gates’ Common Core collectivist standards and colleges indoctrinating young Americans with “social justice” and “white privilege” curricula and proselytizing for Islam. Technical schools thrived everywhere, teaching Americans life-long useful skills that enabled success and prosperity. Nobody relied on foreign labor, skilled or unskilled. The Braceros program had long been destroyed by lawyers.

Americans were willing to fight for their country with words, ideas, principles, and to give up effort and their lives on battle fields to keep intact their heritage, what they believed in, their country and its founding principles. Europe is strewn with graves of brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save Europe and its often ungrateful citizens from the Nazi scourge.

Americans as a whole were lulled into a false sense of security because they lived two oceans away from the threat of communism and any potential war. Surely nobody would dare overrun American shores and our borders in order to occupy their beautiful and successful country, the shiny city on the hill! But nobody counted on the home-grown communist and islamo-fascist enemy within which grew like a contagion in the last forty years.

The indoctrination from public schools, colleges, universities, Hollywood, the main stream media, Communist Party USA, and corrupt politicians was so strong in the last forty years that we are now experiencing the fruits of their efforts – American young who hate their country, its achievements, its greatness, its origins, and even their own skin color.

Liberalism/progressivism/environmentalism/ feminism/socialism/communism created new generations of young Americans who are devoid of patriotism and would not hesitate to turn in their own parents to the government if that would bring them 15-minutes of worthless fame. They derisively laugh at patriotic Americans who helped make this country great, including some of their own relatives, as obsolete men and women, marginalizing and dehumanizing their existence. The sheer hatred coming constantly from the main stream media is not unlike the hatred ginned up against the Jews during Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Laws were upheld, the justice system worked, and politicians respected the legal system and tried to pass laws that represented the best interest of their constituents. Today, unfortunately, the corrupt politicians are only interested in becoming powerful, rich, and representing their crony capitalist friends and the citizens of other countries who are invading our borders for the generous welfare paid to them, no questions asked, from funds provided through taxation of the average working Americans. These illegal aliens are now the voting base in many overpopulated areas and states for the Democrat communist party.

Lately, the more Americans talk about freedoms they think they still have, the more I hear the rattling of the chains of captivity and servitude to the mighty government and to politicians who have stopped listening to the people whose tax money fund their wealth and unbounded and corrupt power.

Derek Hunter wrote, “There are no areas in which liberals, progressives, leftists, socialists, or whatever they want to call themselves this week, are working for the betterment of American citizens or to advance the cause of individual liberty. Their entire existence appears to be just the opposite.” https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2019/02/10/the-democratic-party-needs-to-be-destroyed-before-it-destroys-the-country-n2541109?fbclid=IwAR1EPvOn8HJ7BDsmV6gGgJfILd8nTGPmhJ2kRjXO5mW3goBc6rvSIYFjRYA

Many confused and brainwashed young Americans are saying that America was never great in response to President Trump’s signature campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” while they are living a life which is the envy of the world.  If life is so much better everywhere else, as they claim and wish for an European lifestyle that no longer exists, as they are flooded by Muslim immigrants, why are illegal aliens flocking to our shores asking for welfare and demanding the same rights as American citizens?

The mighty Roman Empire’s road to perdition was cluttered with corruption, traitorous acts, sexual deviance, disregard for life, greed, military expansion beyond ability to rule, disregard for the rule of law, and tolerance of the barbarians. According to the BBC, “Rome covered 1.9 million square miles in 390 A.D. Five years later, it had plummeted to 770,000 square miles. By 476, the empire’s reach was zero.”

We are not an empire and we are not Rome, we are a constitutional republic, “if you can keep it.” If you ask the average Americans who don’t understand their own history, we are a democracy. Are we a government by the people, a rule of the majority? Are we a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections? Does the government listen to the people anymore? Are representatives in Congress legislating on behalf of all American voters? How many illegal aliens who came here to dominate, not assimilate, are now cancelling our votes? How many politicians are listening to their constituents?

The Incredible Legal Immigrants

I am always fascinated by legal immigrants who left their loved ones and their homes behind, came to this country,  and made America a special place unlike any other on earth. Their individual stories of true grit and endurance in the face of adversity gives our American citizens their unique character and cultural fabric.

I am not talking about the failed European multiculturalism model pushed by progressives to incorporate as many different ethnicities and religions as possible whether they fit in or not, including people who have broken the law or have given aid to our enemies. This societally disruptive and demographically suicidal model failed in Europe, it is certainly going to fail here.  

I am also not talking about people who crossed the border illegally to benefit from the abundance and generosity of American welfare and who have no intention of assimilating into our culture. I am talking about legal immigrants who came here with all the right intentions.

Americans are unique because we borrowed the best traditions from so many ethnic groups but forged one amalgamated culture. While keeping the native language at home, legal immigrants of the last century have embraced their new country and learned English. A unified language gave our country its strength.

People like Dr. Pol, an incredible veterinarian who has cared for the health of his four-legged patients who cannot speak to tell what hurts them, and the hearts and farms of his two-legged customers. For 30 years he has seen all of 19,000 furry large and small patients; some are repeat accidents waiting to happen – their curiosity of exploration runs them smack into the quills of porcupines or traffic.

A healthy and enthusiastic man of 70 with an infectious demeanor and incredible positive outlook, Dr. Pol became a proud American citizen in 1976. A native of Netherlands, Dr. Jan Pol  grew up on a farm with a one-room house and was the youngest child. He experienced hard work and the importance of laboring close to the land.

He can run circles around many twenty year olds with his constant energy. He does not love just what he does but he loves this country. He is so respected and celebrated in central Michigan and his vet practice so famous that they made a reality show about him, “The Incredible Dr. Pol.”

My friends who won the immigration lottery in their respective countries brought to America a lot of expertise: engineers, doctors, chemists, athletes, researchers, professors, computer specialists, and nurses. They did not work in their fields right away – they started rather small.

Doru ran a pizzeria at first despite his limited language skills. When he learned English well, he applied for a job in his field, mechanical engineering. He now runs an entire R & D department in the south.

My second cousin Mara, who left her loved ones behind when she won the immigration lottery, is a skilled mathematician who works for a famous company. She has a family and two lovely children.

My long-time friend Lula came from Egypt years ago and is now a tenured professor of psychology. We had lengthy discussions about her life in Egypt, how she had to flee the new regime after Sadat was assassinated, and United States’ prominent role in the world in advancing freedom. We marveled how tolerant and welcoming Americans were in spite of our differences. We were so anxious then to prove our mettle and earn our freedom by giving back to this wonderful society who welcomed us with open arms and gave us the opportunity to succeed.

My friend Samir from Lebanon became the cafeteria manager at the university where I taught while pursuing his doctoral degree in chemistry. We became friends when he took my class in order to satisfy a Master’s level requirement that he had not had. He worked very hard in spite of the fact that the heat in the room and the exhaustion from his regular job made him doze off in class sometimes.

I remember my first job in the U.S., working for minimum wage of $3.10 an hour. I was perhaps the most educated person in the office but the lowest on the payroll rung. I did not care, I was happy to have a job that allowed me to eat and have a roof over my head.

During college, I always held 3-4 different part-time jobs in order to fit my class schedule in the daily very hectic routine that extended through the middle of the night all week long. To top it off, I was pregnant with our first child. Nothing was going to deter me from reaching my fullest potential when I was in the land of opportunity. In Romania, only the children of communist party apparatchiks were allowed the chance to excel  and have a good life.

Liberals are wrong, no matter how hard they demand social justice, economic, and academic equality. We can have equal opportunity but we cannot have equal outcomes, not even mandated by government fiat. Those in power will always have more and better, some people are more motivated than others, some work harder than others, some are more experienced than others, some are smarter than others, some are more talented than others, and some are luckier than others.

A couple I met from the former Czechoslovakia was brought to the U.S. through a Baptist Church mission trip. They claimed political asylum although the wife was eight months pregnant. It was scary for them at first since their English was quite limited. Using a mixture of German and Russian, we communicated until they established a home and learned English. I helped them with the baby, got them enrolled in school, and drove them around town. He is now the director of one of the largest planetariums in the country and a professional photographer. His wife runs a very successful business from home.

The most interesting story was that of my best friend Frieda who defected from East Germany during a short vacation to the U.S. There was no way she was going back to the hellhole life controlled by the Stasi, the secret police! She was given permission to stay on the condition that her friends would provide for her financially and she would not be a burden to our welfare system.

We proceeded to collect money for an apartment. I helped Frieda with clothes, a waitressing job in a local bar, found an apartment, and everything else that allowed her to function daily. When the apartment complex burned down, I found her another one.  Her legal resident alien status changed several years later when she became an American citizen. Almost twenty-five years later, she is the vice-president of a chemical company. Her Economics degree, hard work, and the desire to succeed helped her achieve her dream. Interestingly enough, we studied Economics at the same college in Europe but our paths never crossed then.

During my thirty years of teaching, I helped many immigrants pro bono by translating their birth certificates, school transcripts, and other necessary documents. My phone number was on the speed dial at the local hospital when they needed me to translate surgical procedures they were performing on foreign nationals who were either new to the area or were passing through. This was my way of paying it forward in hopes that these people would become good Americans, building our country up and not tearing it down.

But  all these stories pale in comparison to the sagas of the initial legal immigrants holding satchels with their earthly belonging who had to pass through Ellis Island after the arduous Atlantic crossing, were quarantined, some assigned new names and new spellings by careless clerks, and were given or denied permission to enter the New World. These were the true pioneers who battled hardships, life and death situations, insecurity, the unknown, lawlessness, prejudice, abuse,  interment, and unforgiving conditions, yet they prevailed, thanking God for their good fortune and their freedom.