A Grateful American

I moved recently to another town on Long Island. In so doing, because my barber was too far from where I used to live, I decided to try my brother-in-law's place where he goes. So, last month, I went there and a nice woman named Lana cut my hair.

On Tuesday, I decided it was time to get my hair cut again. And as it happened, Lana was up and she invited me to sit at her station.

I sat and we started to talk. I learned a few things about her which I found quite revealing. She is originally from Tajikistan and emigrated to Israel in 1992 when she was 17, right after the Soviet Union collapsed.

She was married in Israel and had her first two children there. She and her husband left Israel, because while she felt she was free, she knew she was not safe. She did not want her children to live under such fear. She, certainly, could not bear the thought of her children going off to school and not returning because a bus was blown up or the school was bombed.

So, she and her family came here in the spring of 2001.

She subsequently had her third child in 2002. She has tried to raise them as Americans and of course, as American teenagers, they have all the answers.

In 2012, she proudly became an American citizen. And because her kids who were born in Israel, and under 18, she said they automatically became citizens, too.

Trust me. I learned a lot about her, her fears, concerns, her hopes and her dreams. Her view of the world is so different from Americans who were born here. She is actually grateful for her good fortune, for her choices in her life, for the fact she is living here. We should live elsewhere to see firsthand to see the conditions under which others must live.

Short of that, we should take the time and effort to learn, really learn from our friends, coworkers, neighbors, etc, about the countries they came from and the reasons for why they left. Like Lana, I am sure it was for freedom AND security, justice AND peace, which we take for granted.

We need to realize how lucky we really are to be natural-born Americans, knowing that what we have can never be taken away. Then, perhaps, we can stop the divisiveness that permeates our society.

Lana taught me a lesson I seemed to have forgotten. Perhaps, there is a Lana out there for you to learn from, too.

Take the time to find out.