My great-grandparents immigrated to this country from Sicily. They traveled in steerage, because those were the only tickets they could afford. They didn’t come to the U.S. because they wanted to make money and then send it back to Italy, they came because they wanted to be AMERICANS, and their tickets were ‘One Way’. They couldn’t speak English, but they believed what was written on our Statute Of Liberty: “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!” They passed through Ellis Island, and settled in an Italian ghetto in New York. They went out each day looking for work, ANY kind of work, and they soon learned how to read the “Italians Need Not Apply” signs. But, they kept looking and kept going, and every night they thanked God in their prayers for bringing them to the ‘Promised Land’. Yea, things were different then (in good ways, and bad ones), but so were the people who came to this wonderful country of ours. They didn’t break in by sneaking through a back window, they came through the front door, and they followed our rules. They couldn’t speak English, but every day they tried to learn. And they didn’t look back, they looked forward at what they knew was going to be a wonderful future for them and for the children they would have … AMERICAN children. And they also discovered the wonderful heart of our great country that is so beautifully expressed in this magnificent song by Willie Nelson: “Give us your tired and weak And we will make them strong Bring us your foreign songs And we will sing along Leave us your broken dreams Well give them time to mend Theres still a lot of love Living in the Promiseland” youtube/watch?v=aus-fcM3dlY
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:00:05 +0000
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