Immigrants Know the Meaning of Gratitude

On the National Day of Thanksgiving, a Lithuanian survivor of the Holocaust, called the Dennis Prager radio talk show. The caller was known to Dennis, and Dennis vouched for his caller’s authenticity.

The gentleman is a Lithuanian Jew, and he related that he had been in a German concentration camp as a youngster and was liberated by the American armed forces. He subsequently immigrated to the United States where he became a successful author in Russian, married, had children and now has grandchildren. He recounted the opportunities that he enjoyed in this country, as opposed to his fellow Holocaust surviviors, who returned to their mother country, Russia, at the conclusion of World War II. There they were met with suspicions for having been in “occupied lands,” and they were again imprisoned.

The gentleman related that he is often invited to parties given by Russian immigrants in the United States, and that when the vodka begins to flow, invariable someone will offer a toast to the United States.

The gentlemen told his story in a calm and even tone until he came to the part about offering the toast. Then he lost his composure, as he was overwhelmed with emotion.

Why is it that so many Americans born and raised in this land of plenty don’t share the level of gratitude as this old immigrant? Is it that we are jaded or naïve? Perhaps it is so, because we have not had to live under the conditions that so many of our fellow earthlings have had to suffer. If we continue our general lackadaisical, uneducated, head stuck in the sand attitude, we will someday understand the old gentleman’s pain, but not his joy of gratitude because the United States of America will no longer exist as we know it.

Here’s my toast to the United States of America. Care to join me, or are you an ingrate contributing to the demise of this country by your lack involvement in keeping this country great?