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.
