Posted on 09/04/2008 11:28:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Okay, here's my Republican Convention story. After I did my little tiny bit of reporting work from St. Paul's Xcel Center on Wednesday, I got into a taxi to head back to my hotel. Of course we got stuck in traffic.
I asked my driver, a rugged looking fellow, where he was from and how he was enjoying the convention.
It was as if I had uncorked a bottle of champagne.
"Have you ever heard of Ogaden?" he asked me.
"Yes, it's part of Ethiopia," I said. "Lots of fighting there."
"It is a huge area. Seven million people. Government of Ethiopia gives us no schools, no hospitals, no clinics, nothing. Just poor nomads who want something more. There is oil there and other people get rich from it and we stay poor.
"I was a nomad," he said. "I had nothing. I escaped when they wanted to put me in the army to fight in Somalia. I went to Kenya, then came here. Kenya is a beautiful country but there is no country like the United States.
"I have been here sixteen years. I came with nothing. I have a taxi now. I am in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. I have a wife and three kids. We have a house and two cars and air conditioning. I brought over my two brothers. They were grazing sheep. Now one is a chemical engineer and one is studying English literature. In the United States anything can happen."
I thought to myself, this is the real story of America, not Sarah Palin or Joe Biden. This taxi driver who found his dreams in the Twin Cities.
"Listen, I know people who talk bad about the United States," my driver said. "I tell them, if you work you can accomplish anything in this country. If you don't, there's something wrong with you, not this country. This country is the best country in the world. Everyone," and here he raised his voice and wagged his finger, "everyone in the world wants to come here. And they're right."
The rest of the convention was fine, but I got my lesson from that taxi driver from a war torn hellhole, who found his Garden of Eden in Minnesota. God bless this great country.
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu. His Diary appears in every issue of The American Spectator.
BTTT!
if you work you can accomplish anything in this country. If you don’t, there’s something wrong with you, not this country.
****
Amen brother! And this guy is a taxi driver who’s actually happy to be here in America. And an overpaid, overpampered lefty celebrity who makes millions, ISN’T??
But WHO is the cabbie voting for ?
Wonderful LEGAL IMMIGRANT American-story.
I’m calling B.S. This story is just too cute. Its been made up...
Wonderful post.
Some of the people who appreciate America the most are those who came from a foreign country and LEGALLY applied to live here.
“But WHO is the cabbie voting for ?”
Exactly, I hope he realizes that if he votes for Obama then he’ll be ensuring that this eden won’t be here in the future for others like him.
It’s strange that Stein would leave that part out. It would moot the entire article if the cabbie says he’s voting for Obama.
You are so right in this statement... The best book I've read is Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. If your students could only understand that, they would understand a big part of our founding father's desire to be a free nation.
Unfortunately, our publik skool system has basically eliminated this from the curriculum.
It’s Ben Stein. Maybe he was just waxing poetic.
Run into Norm Coleman Ben?
I weep at the loss to civilization of all those kept under the yoke of despotism around the world.
Think about the re-education camps in Viet Nam and Cambodia that denied us the intellect of their best and brightest.
The people in the far away countries forced to forage for food rather than develop their god given talents.
America is the last best hope for humanity. We cannot allow Obama to diminish our beacon.
Sorry if it sounds trite and smarmy but it’s how I can express my heart.
I talk to cab drivers from Ethiopia all of the time. Most of them tell the same story. They feel the same way about this country - and most are not voting for Obama.
Only one phrase works-—”just damn”. What an INCREDIBLE story. It’s just a shame that people like Obama don’t understand how truly exceptional the US is by comparison with the rest of the world, and why the world needs to imitate US, rather than the reverse.
"Listen, I know people who talk bad about the United States," my driver said. "I tell them, if you work you can accomplish anything in this country. If you don't, there's something wrong with you, not this country. This country is the best country in the world. Everyone," and here he raised his voice and wagged his finger, "everyone in the world wants to come here. And they're right."
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