A child, sent away from home

[Proud Public Servant]

She was a child sent away from her home country, a place riven by both internal and external violence, devastated by famine, and on the verge of becoming a failed state. She was sent alone -- a child, a girl, alone -- to America, in the hopes that she might find a better life there.

She had no money. She spoke no English. She came -- was sent -- anyway.

She's not sitting in a refugee camp on the Rio Grande right now. She's not a political football, not a Tea Party talking point. She has never, and will never, appear on the nightly news. In fact, she's dead.

And has been for a while. But dead at the age of 87, some 70 years after that terrifying childhood journey. And what did she inflict on a more compassionate America, and America that, in the waning days of the Wilson Administration, took her in rather than imprisoning and/or deporting her?

She married. Learned English. Paid her taxes. Became a citizen. Voted.

She had a son. He served in the army during the Korean War, then went to night school on the GI Bill and landed a good job with a good company. Paid his taxes. Voted. Married. Bought a house. Had kids. Sent them to good colleges. They put themselves through grad schools, became professionals and public servants. They paid their taxes. Voted. Married. Had kids. Sent them to good schools...

So I've been thinking about that child -- my grandmother, Olga, born in 1903 in a small village in what's now Ukraine -- a lot lately. And every time I see those red-faced new Know-Nothings screaming about the kids at the border, I want to scream right back until I'm red in the face myself: "You fucking, fucking assholes! Why do you think we're all here? Who else ever chose to come to America, except terrified refugees fleeing the shit back home? Who the fuck do you think we are?"

Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Thank you for the OP, PPS. I hear you, I want to slap those people silly. nt

[Proud Public Servant]

5. Gosh, and that's your first post?

Pardon me while I flag a troll...

[chervilant]

7. Bleh...

Did you sign up just so you could post this insensitive remark?

Yuck.

[chervilant]

3. Makes me want to cry,

witnessing all that hate.

[Sheepshank]

17. It's hard to fathom, and make me cry too n/t

[jehop61]

4. Thank you

My grandmother's story is almost the same. She was 16 and her sister was 17. How can these anti refugee people live with themselver?

[jwirr]

8. And if we look most of us can find those stories. Our stories mostly have either families or

individuals who immigrated and live the kind of lives you tell us about. Some were not as successful as yours - I was the first college graduate in my family - we were farmers. Some were even more successful - most of our presidents can trace their families back to an immigrant.

The only reason these loud mouth idiots have for screaming in ignorance and greed.

[mountain grammy]

9. thank you for your beautiful story

My uncle (by marriage) was 6 when he escaped Russia with his two teenage sisters after watching their parents murdered in a pogrom.
He was the most wonderful man, my Uncle Sam, I've missed him for almost 40 years.

[abelenkpe]

10. K&R

[secondwind]

11. K&R . Wonderful tribute to your grandmother

[hedgehog]

12. My grandparents had similar stories -

my grandfather came here and gave false information - he was a young Irishman facing conscription if he stayed in the UK, and he had mother and sisters to support at home. She was a 16 year old kid sent out to live with friends in Youngstown and find work as a maid. There was nothing for her at home. They had the advantage of knowing how to speak, read and write English, but I'm fairly certain their entry into this country wasn't exactly properly done.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Thank you to MIRT...you guys are awesome...no website like DU.

[daleanime]

14. K&fuckingR....

Hell yes, so tried of that hate shit. You want to hate some one? Go look in a mirror.

[DeSwiss]

15. Thank you for that story.

K&R!

[IggleDoer]

16. Another similar story.

My mother was sent on a freighter at age 2, with a note pinned to her chest. It said something like, if she gets to the States, look up an Aunt at such and such an address.

This apparently was common and the older people on the ship looked after the young ones.

She just assumed that she was a citizen (voted, got a nursing license, etc) but 50 years later, she discovered she wasn't and became a citizen.

Her mother was killed but her father came over about 20+ years later.

[pansypoo53219]

18. a generation plus of reaganism, rush, fux gnewz has made USA hateful and not what we should be.

divide and conquer. georgee took 9/11 when we came together, to divide amerika even more.

[Historic NY]

19. Same with my grandparents....1903 & 09

ended up meeting here 5yrs later.

[TeeYiYi]

20. I'm not sure...

...your grandmother was a child. She was at least 17...according to your figures.

Other than that, great post!

TYY

[Proud Public Servant]

27. There are teens at the border, too.

That's the connection I keep making in my mind.

[TeeYiYi]

32. My grandmother...

...had two children and a third on the way when she was seventeen. She'd had four babies by the time she was nineteen.

I'm simply suggesting that your story is strong on its own merits without conflating the current child refugee issue by referring to a young woman, your grandmother, as a child.

I appreciate your rant. Thank you for sharing it.

TYY

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. Righteous Rant; though ...

You fucking, fucking assholes! Why do you think we're all here? Who else ever came to America, except terrified refugees fleeing the shit back home?

The original African-Americans (and their progeny) comes to mind ... though the descriptor fits for more recent immigrants.

[TeeYiYi]

22. !...

TYY

[Proud Public Servant]

24. You're right, of course. And I'm going to fix it. (nt)

[Divernan]

23. That's what I call a righteous post, dude!

[nolabear]

25. She sounds like a strong, remarkable human being.

And clearly she created people we are proud to call American. Wonderful!

[demigoddess]

26. Mad as hell!

heard a repub in the House talking like all these kids are trafficking drugs and carrying guns, ready to join a gang!! God! what ignorance and prejudice is going on in our country.

[mackerel]

28. Gorta Mor - The Great Hunger

that's how we got here too.

[tk2kewl]

29. my grandpa too

thanks for the op

of course he spoke English although some probably couldn't understand his brogue

One generation earlier on my mother side they came not speaking English

[riqster]

30. Damn skippy. Well said!

My people came over between 1774 and the 1890's, and all of them were fleeing something.

Fuck the xenophobic fuckheads.

[JDPriestly]

31. K&R.

[GeoWilliam750]

33. Probably everyone here has similar stories in their families

Please write them down - the stories of extraordinary courage in our families make us who we are. Our children should know those stories.

And for as long as we have had immigrants, we have had anti-immigrants.

We are a nation descended from people who risked everything for a small chance of a better life, and such are the people that I WANT in my country - people who have everything to gain through tireless work. Whilst I have some anger about the brutal exploitation that these people often endure at the hands of the 0.01%, I welcome them.

Perhaps it is time that we built a second Statue of Liberty just barely on our side of the Rio Grande.

“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-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

[Hatchling]

34. Thanks for sharing your story.

It's beautiful.

[Enthusiast]

35. K&R! They® are, in fact, fucking, fucking assholes.

[brer cat]

36. Beautiful, PPS.

Thank you for sharing. These stories are an important part of our heritage and a reminder of our humble beginnings.

[ColesCountyDem]

37. My Bubbe came from Lviv as a 16 year-old girl, running away to America to marry my Dziadek.

At the time she left, Lviv was Galicia, of course, although it has also been Polish and Ukranian. Any way...

Bubbe was Jewish, and madly in love with a Catholic boy her age, a HUGE 'no-no' at that time and in that place. Even worse, she was 'in the family way'. Terrified, she and my grandfather borrowed passage money from my grandfather's understanding, sympathetic uncle and fled to America. Neither knew English, and were virtually penniless. From that point on, their story could be your grandmother's story!

I will repeat your sentiments, because they perfectly reflect my own:

"You fucking, fucking assholes! Why do you think we're all here? Who else ever chose to come to America, except terrified refugees fleeing the shit back home? Who the fuck do you think we are?"

[indepat]

38. Thanks for calling this entire cadre of fucking, fucking assholes "You fucking, fucking assholes!"

[McCamy Taylor]

39. A lot of the screamers had "Olgas" of their own.

But they are under the illusion that it was somehow different back then or that people from "their" home country of Italy or Poland or Germany were different.

[Leith]

40. My Ancestors Are No Different

Dirt poor, mainly from Ireland and Germany, but there is French, English, and Welch in there, too. Their stories did not make it through the generations, though.

So here's another story:

He was our family doctor. We all loved him, from my 92 year old grandfather who didn't like anybody to my 2 year old niece who smiled and giggled in the examination room. I once burned my hand with boiling hot water (silly and totally avoidable accident). I was at work and they insisted that I go to a doctor because of the incident report. My doctor spread salve on my skin while I told him how it happened. He didn't tell me I should have been more careful, he empathized with me about the pain.

A week later my mother told me what she heard from a mutual acquaintance:

He was a Jewish boy in Russia when WW II broke out. By 1945, he was 12 years old and alone in the world. As a child refugee, he was sent to America without a penny and speaking no English. Ten years later, he was finishing up college and preparing to enter medical school.

I was floored. How can I complain about a slight cold to a person like that? Well, he epitomizes the idea that those who have endured the most hardship deal gently with those who are experiencing their own, however slight.

By the time I met him, his accent had faded so much that I thought he was from New York City. It makes ya wonder: were there anti-immigration protestors to meet his boat after the war? The economy was just recovering from a major war. Returning soldiers and support personnel needed jobs and housing. Rationing was a fresh memory. Things were much worse back then but this country made room for that orphan boy. I think we can make room for a few children escaping similar situations where they came from.

[niyad]

41. thank you for this heartwarming bit of your family's story.

I look at those hate-mongers and wonder how they don't choke on their own bile.

[ellennelle]

42. bless you

and your grandmother, olga!

she did a remarkably good job; see how eloquently you voice your passion!

thanks for that.

[Half-Century Man]

43. Thank you for telling us this story.

[JDPriestly]

44. Are you able to offer a foster home to one of the children coming

into the US? They need homes. Otherwise they will end up in large homes. I read today that they have removed them from the military bases. Many of them will ultimately be sent home because our laws on refugee status are pretty strict.

[GeoWilliam750]

46. Perhaps

We need to start a sort of modern day "kinder transport".

I am always delightfully astonished at people's ability to do deeply good things.

[Thespian2]

45. Very Understanding

story of the founding of America. I am part Cherokee, so some of my relatives were in America when the other relatives arrived from England in the 1700's. Aside from Native Americans, we are all immigrants. The passage of time, however, has allowed the ignorant assholes who want to shoot anyone crossing the southern border to confuse the already stupid into thinking that America belongs only to them.