Posted on 06/04/2019 4:59:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
NORTH VERSAILLES, Penn. -- Starr DeJesus admits she learned a lot about both the generosity of the American people and her own potential from an immigrant who spoke to her civics class.
"I didn't know it was just an America thing to tip servers," the high school senior and part-time Denny's server said. "We rarely emphasize the good things about our culture. The only things you ever hear about on social media are complaints or criticisms."
DeJesus said she also didn't consider how much it is within her own power to earn more money. "You gotta push," she said. "Some people you really have to impress and wow to get that tip. If you do the bare minimum, they're not going to care and they're going to disregard you. But, me personally, I try my best every day. That's why I have a lot of regulars, and I'm able to earn so much money being this young. But it is a lesson I will take with me to college and eventually my career."
The larger lesson she and 100 or so other high school students here at East Allegheny High School learned was something they sheepishly admitted afterward that they had taken for granted: how lucky they are to be born in America.
Nick Adams, the immigrant from Australia who spoke to the students, appreciates this in a way a native may never truly understand.
When Adams was a boy, an American doctor, who happened to be interning in Australia, successfully diagnosed the rare cancer he had. Adams points to that moment as evidence of American exceptionalism.
He has since dedicated his life to reminding young people through his nonprofit, the Foundation for Liberty & American Greatness, of all the aspects that make this country truly unique. On this blustery spring day, he was in the Mon Valley discussing with these students why they should remember America's greatness.
The students were riveted by Adams' perspective. His questions engaged them and challenged them on the benefits of their citizenship, which he equates to winning the lottery.
"OK, so in my hand I have a coin," he says. "I want to ask you, there are three things inscribed on every coin in U.S. currency and printed on every dollar bill of every denomination in American currency. Who can tell me what those three things are?"
The students provide the answers: "In God we trust," "e pluribus unum" and "liberty."
"I like to call it the American trinity," Adams says. "Some of you might have heard the holy Trinity. I like to call it the American trinity. Those three things make America a unique place. Some countries have one of those things. Some countries have two of those things. But no other country in the world has the unique blend of each of those three different things. Liberty, e pluribus unum, and in God we trust."
East Allegheny High School is an ordinary high school campus located in a tidy middle-class neighborhood that has seen better days economically. It is nonetheless surrounded by modest homes whose owners clearly take great pride in their appearance.
It is a town that has not succumbed to the hollowed-out blight common among river towns in the Rust Belt. But the shrinking population has led to a smaller school district: There are 724 students seventh through 12th grade. The student body is 57% white and 30% black.
Fifty-seven percent of the 2018 graduates went to a four-year college. Thirty-eight percent went to community college. Three percent went to a trade school. And 1% joined the Army.
Marissa Riggs, a senior from the nearby borough of Wilmerding, was told by her honors history teacher to come to the presentation. "Honestly I am glad it was compulsory," she said. "I really learned a lot."
"I thought Mr. Adams was really inspiring. He reminded us powerful things we sometimes take for granted, such as we are a government of the people, not a people of the government," she said, adding, "I think we're a little bit too spoiled and entitled sometimes in our thinking."
Perhaps learning, like everything else in our daily lives, is too laced with politics, and simply delivering the details to students in a compelling way can help make understanding all of history, good and bad, a lot more meaningful.
One of the best, most patriotic Americans I knew was a Polish immigrant. I’d trade every liberal in the country 1 for 1 for someone from Poland.
Thomas Paine wrote, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly...” That’s true of citizenship as well.
I’m tired of immigrants and immigration.
This topic should not be anywhere near as dominant in American political life as it is.
Between that, homosexuality, Communism, and Islam, public debate has been taken over entirely by topics that have little to nothing to do with the well-being of Americans.
The only presence any of the four topics should have in public policy debate is how to we get rid of them all.
It is criminal what we are indoctrinating our young people with. No country such as our can survive such self-sabotage in the long run.
Domestic Enemy #2: Pubic school teachers.
Domestic Enemy #1: Lawyers.
My cousin married a man from Bulgaria. He is now a proud patriotic American. Interestingly enough, from the very beginning, his first choice for president was Donald Trump.
I think it is good for us to come across immigrants like that. They remind us of how precious what we have actually is. We have become so inured in it, that we take if for granted. We need to dump all the illegal “gimme my free stuff”, and bring in those people that WANT to be Americans
We have all known immigrants who were fine, patriotic people and were an asset to our country.
They all came LEGALLY and endured a legal process that can at times be torture by bureaucrat. I some cases it can take one 9 to 10 years to obtain a green card. But they had enough respect for law and order to endure the process.
Opening the gates to floods of lawbreakers dishonors them.
Because the progressives have changed the system to deliberately favor the wrong kind of immigrants - manual laborers from Third World countries with no particular interest in assimilating. Potentially great Americans are lined up waiting to get in...but because they might have white skin or there is a chance they will not vote for the expansion of the welfare state, they are forbidden entry.
When I was a kid (3rd-6th grade), my dad, who was in the Air Force, got assigned to Spain for 3 years (1957-60). We lived for 2 years in a little town called Alcalá de Guidiquivir about ten miles from Sevilla, amongst the Spaniards and not on the military base. The last year they finally built base housing and we lived in a patio home on base outside of Sevilla.
While living there was exciting, educational and a life experience I have never forgotten (we also took trips through Europe, Greece, Great Britain and North Africa while there), it was the trip home that was the most satisfying.
When our return flight landed in Dover, Delaware and we picked up our car and left base, it was like entering another world. I literally knelt down and kissed the ground, thankful to be back in the US after three years abroad.
Even at that young age, I recognized how lucky we were to be from the US and how much nicer things were in the states. It took awhile to get used to how modern and clean everything was compared to Spain and the rest of Europe.
From then on, I felt grateful for having been born in the US and for how nice we had it here. Most of my classmates in school did not know how good they had it because they had nothing to compare it to.
And I think that is the problem with many in the US who have never been anywhere else in the world. They don't know how well we have it here and constantly complain about what they don't have or how we should be more like Europe.
Trust me folks, there is a reason why so many people around the world want to come to America. It's not because we don't have our own problems but that our problems pale in comparison to how most of the rest of the world live.
We truly are lucky to be born in America. I learned that first-hand as a kid and have never forgotten it.
It’s a shame that the left has deprived us of our ability to distinguish between the immigrants who would work hard and appreciate what made America great and those who would vote themselves into the bank accounts of productive citizens.
Yes, but we’re not Motel 6 for the whole world. We need to go back to pre-1965 immigration quotas.
My point is that there are many people in this country, i.e. Americans, who don't appreciate how good we have here because they haven't lived anywhere else to compare it to.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence until you actually climb over it to the next pasture and find out it is not necessarily so.
I’m not one them. I KNOW how good it is here, believe me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.