Meeting with Pakistani Immigrant Gives Real Hope and Cheer

[jbg]

Yesterday, I took my almost 13 year old son on a voyage to New Jersey we will long remember. Today, I took my whole family to the neighboring Statue of Liberty. Both trips are ones I will long remember and I hope they do too.

I'll take things out of order.

Today, while waiting in the security cue for the walk up the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, I met a kidney surgeon of obviously foreign extraction on line. I asked him where he was from and in heavily accented English he said "Dallas, Texas". I then asked him where he was originally from and he said Karachi, Pakistan. He expressed surprise I'd heard of Karachi.

He said he considered himself an American and not a Pakistani. I told him that his approach gave me real hope and cheer "from a Jew to a Muslim". He shook my hand and heartily agreed, and we exchanged names. His is Ahmed, and mine Jim.

The dedicating poem was The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (link). Need I say more?

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Yestereday, I saw Ellis Island with my older son. Ellis Island was the gateway through which more than 12 million immigrants poured into the U.S. between 1892 and 1924, 1,200,000 alone in one of those years, I believe 1908 or 1909. Ellis Island was not the only "gateway" but it was by far the largest. The "brain drain" that poured through Ellis Island and similar points were probably the major key to America's greatness and Europe's decline.

They came, they learned to speak English, they contributed, and, similar to Ahmed, made America what it is today.

Edited February 16, 2009 by jbg

[Oleg Bach]

If you love and are honest and deal in good faith you can bridge any cultural or relgious gape - economic ones are harder because some people with money are convinced they are demi-gods and you are a microb...hard for a big god to shake hands with a germ. Actually - If allowed --- for instance..Palistinian woman would be great friends with Israeli woman and some are but those that bridge the gape are persecuted on both sides..those with hope are not permitted in some cases to exercise even hope - that costs nothing but goes a long long way towards peace and security.

[jbg]

Last night I met a Muslim pianist from Iran. She called it Persia.

She said she left after the Islamic Revolution. She was forced to play piano wearing a veil. Otherwise conditions became debilitating and degrading.

I am always happy to receive people like her who would be an asset anywhere, and just want to escape the garbage.