Posted on 10/31/2017 5:28:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
CHICAGO -- When he first came to this city 14 years ago from his home, located 20 miles outside of Sofia, Bulgaria, he only knew two words in the English language: "Pepsi" and "pizza."
"I came here because my best friend said, 'In America, no matter who you are, you can make something of yourself and make something good for your family if you just work hard,'" he says with a rich mixture of his native tongue and near-perfect English. "So, I did."
Along with him came his wife and his 5-year-old son. They immediately settled in the northwest suburbs of Chicago -- a city, by the way, that is home to the largest Bulgarian immigrant population in the world. U.S. Census data shows around 20,000 Bulgarian-Chicagoans. The consulate general of Bulgaria claims nearly three times that many.
He is part of a wave of Bulgarian immigrants who have arrived in the Windy City in the past 15 years, a wave that has embraced the American Dream with gusto. These are the folks who help make Chicago Chicago; they are builders, construction workers, artisans, business owners and professionals. They learn trades. They attend college. And they feed into our unique American exceptionalism.
He says: "We thrive because we love the opportunities we have here not just for ourselves but for our children. The key is, not to give up. The deadbolt is, even when everything conspires to work against you, you have to be willing to find a way to make a living another way."
He knows change is coming. He has been a professional driver since he arrived here and seen the changes that car services like Uber have made on his profession. He knows that technology in the not too distant future will eliminate many drivers altogether with autonomous cars.
He explains: "Today, I make the same amount that I did ten years ago. It is not because I work less, it is because all of these technological advances have impacted my industry. I used to work 12 hours; I now work 14 to 16 hours to keep my salary the same."
Sound familiar? It should. Despite his youth, his relatively short time in this country and his incredible work ethic, his economic struggles sound eerily similar to those of middle-aged Rust Belt voters whose manufacturing jobs were displaced by technology. They are the very sons and daughters of the last great European immigration wave of the 20th century. Like him, those immigrants had strong pride in becoming American. Like him, they instantly became cornerstones in their community. And like him, they worked hard for their family to have a better life.
Every immigrant in this country is an echo of all of us. Tug the thread of his story seen throughout the fabric of our country and you find that same strain of defiance that says you will make it regardless of what obstacles you face. It is common across the country, but it is particularly visible in first-generation immigrants.
He says he does not understand the part of the country that is angry all of the time. He beams: "I understand that things need fixed or changed, but sometimes I wonder if some Americans really understand how blessed they are. If they take the time to ponder that. No country is perfect, this country, if you use the opportunities in front of you, is as close as you can get."
It really is that simple, he says.
He is appalled at what parts of Chicago have become. He says: "Too much death, there are kids who are afraid to go to school because they have to cross over several different gang territories to get from home to the school. I blame the machine politics of this city for that. They keep people down and give them just enough stuff to get their vote, but it is a culture that keeps them from succeeding."
Seeing our country through the eyes of a recent immigrant provides a glimpse into the experiences many of our families faced. They came here without much, sometimes just the clothes on their back. They did not know the language, the people, the customs or whether they would be able to get a job once they got here.
Like him, they came anyway. Life wasn't always easy -- sometimes it wasn't at all -- but they became the people who built America. They drove the trucks, dug the dirt, made the food, harvested the grain, soaked their lungs in coal dust, singed their hair and their skin while working in the steel mills, and sent their sons and daughters off to college for a better life than theirs.
The next time we complain about the metro or the barista or how offended we are by the outrage of the moment, we should think about the young immigrants of our country and try to imagine what it is like to appreciate what we have instead of believing we are entitled to it.
What an excellent quote!!!
++++++
‘I blame the machine politics of this city for that. They keep people down and give them just enough stuff to get their vote, but it is a culture that keeps them from succeeding.”’
PING
Chicago is not called the “Windy City” for nothing. The reasons are totally unrelated to the velocity of moving air that stirs through the streets, but a great deal may be made of the empty promises made by the current and past city governments, which are swept away only moments after the most recent elections.
The rebellions within the city are not directed at the current power structure, but against neighbor on neighbor and some kind of straw men that get set up as an excuse to be attacked. Much of Chicago suffers from this orchestrated strife, and it would end in months if the main perpetrators were indicted and prosecuted.
Trouble is, that cleansing would also wipe out much of the City Council and the Mayor’s office.
nice sentiment but we now live in a ‘gimmedat’ society
'Be glad for the meagre crumbs doled out to you while the overlords import hordes of cheap foreigners to undercut your wages...while exploiting the foreigners too.'
“they are builders, construction workers, artisans, business owners and professionals. They learn trades. They attend college. And they feed into our unique American exceptionalism.”
Wait...you mean they are not sitting around with their hand out demanding obamaphones and free sh!t? How dare these immigrants be productive! It messes with the Dem narritive.
A lot of young people today are so misguided, they would likely take offense at Ms. Zito saying that.
This is the one that hit me...”Every immigrant in this country is an echo of all of us. Tug the thread of his story seen throughout the fabric of our country and you find that same strain of defiance that says you will make it regardless of what obstacles you face. It is common across the country, but it is particularly visible in first-generation immigrants.”
Too many these days don’t know how to defy the obstacles. A couple days ago, a guy was talking about the NASA Biodome project. They tried to grow crops and they would grow to a certain point then die. After lots of research, they figured out that the stalks were weak because of no wind. The wind made the stalks strong because they had to defy the obstacles. Many of our snowflake generation will be like the weak stalks when the slightest thing goes wrong.
Sorry, Bio-sphere, not Biodome
Got this in an email this week. We all need to read and think about it:
Lisa Beamer on Good Morning America - If you remember, she’s the wife of Todd Beamer who said ‘Let’s Roll!’ and helped take down the plane over Pennsylvania that was heading for Washington, DC on 9/11.
She said it’s the little things that she misses most about Todd, such as hearing the garage door open as he came home, and her children running to meet him.
Lisa recalled this story:
“I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack.
About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students.
As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there.
With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, Class is over. I would like to share with all of you, a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important. Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end. It can be taken away at any moment.
Perhaps this is God’s way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day. Her eyes, beginning to water, she went on, so I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice. It doesn’t have to be something you see; it could be a scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone’s house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are the “stuff” of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted.
The class was completely quiet.
We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us and I try to appreciate all those things that sometimes we all overlook.
Take notice of something special you see on your lunch break today.
Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset.
Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double dip ice cream cone.
For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn’t do.
Did not the Trump White House sent out law enforcement help out that way a couple of months back?
What’s really an outrage is how the left resents immigrants who work hard and assimilate. It’s because they don’t vote for Democrats.
Nice way for author Salena Zito to subtlely link Hispanics with Bulgarians as evidence of successful pro-immigration policy. Clever girl.
The problem is that we are faced with a different kind of immigrant than those that most of us can trace ur ancestry back to. Most of u had ancestors who looked upon America as the land of opportunity. Too many current immigrants look upon America as the land of the free lunch. In that, they are joined by too many who were born here.
Bump to you Salena. Thanks for highlighting the other side of immigration.
Let Trump deal with it.
Building a wall is necessary symbol of our failures. Politicians like those in Chicago are not doing their jobs.
Nice...
It is sad that our statesmen of today do not have the wisdom displayed by America's founders.
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766
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