"Real Americans" have short memories....

                    Who is a "Real American", anyway? 

The majority of Americans don't live in the "Heartland" We live in cities on the coasts, east and west. 

We get branded as "Coastal Elitists" by the minority of Americans who don't live in major cities or high population states. These "Real Americans" are convinced we aren't 'Real Americans", we aren't patriotic like they are, we don't honor the flag. We don't go to church, etc, etc. 

I've had it pointed out to me that we wouldn't rescue a lost puppy! Apparently the traffic jam I was trapped in on the freeway caused by a dog rescue was just a figment of my imagination. I've had it pointed out to me that we aren't interested in helping our neighbors, we just don't care. I guess when I'd shovel my elderly Back Bay neighbor's sidewalk after nasty New England snow storms doesn't count, because I'm not a "Real American".

I grew up in North Dakota, can't get anymore Heartland than that, can you? 

In my home county today, here's a profile of "Real America".

There are 970 farms in my home county of 70 plus thousand people, in short, there are no farmers. These "Real Americans" tilling the soil enjoy a median household income of $171,000 a year, higher than Greenwich, Connecticut. Just the salt of the earth, right?

My dad's mom was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, her first language was Norwegian, why? Because that's what they spoke at home. Guess what, I worked for a guy, his parents were Italian immigrants, they spoke Italian at home and like my grandmother's Norwegian, his first language was Italian. Like my family and Norwegian, his kids don't speak Italian.

Hispanic families are in the same situation, so are Vietnamese families and all of the people of the diverse immigrant community where I live. When the 2nd generation shows up nobody speaks the family's native tongue anymore. The only exception is if grandma or grandpa live in the house. The same as it was when I was a kid.

When I was growing up in North Dakota, you didn't have to travel very far out of town, actually you could stay in town, to hear people speaking Norwegian, Swedish, German and a lot of older people spoke broken English, English so broken they were difficult to understand. My grandmother used to have telephone conversations in Norwegian in the 50's and 60's, by that time, her family had been in the country since before North Dakota was a state.

My great, grandmother on my mother's side was born in Land's End, England. Her parents immigrated to Illinois with out her. Little baby Alice Allen was left behind, too young to make the trip. Little Alice came to America at age three, bought by a relative to the USA to join her parents in Illinois. Even under the loose immigration laws of the time, I'm not sure Little Alice was ever legal and here she was benefiting from the dreaded 'Chain Migration" Good thing Alice Allen wasn't Chinese.

A friend's great grandfather was on the County Commission in Polk County Minnesota in the 1880's. Carl has some of his notes, a reoccurring theme in the meetings, held by the all Lutheran, Norwegian Commissioners is how they were going to address the "Papist" problem. They were scared to death that the newly arriving Irish and Polish Catholics were going to change the culture of the county. 

A friend of mine, his name is Alberto, came to the US illegally, worked the fields, saved his money, got his papers, went home found a wife and brought her to the the US with no papers, we were going through one of our "get tough on immigration" periods at the time. Eventually they had two baby girls, Alberto got his wife's paperwork straightened out with the help of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and life went on. Alberto worked hard, started a business and prospered. One of his girls graduated from UCLA, the other from Columbia. The UCLA grad retired from the Navy as a Commander and now works for the Department of the Navy, the other is a VP at Boeing in Seattle. Alberto's story is not rare where I live. In fact it's the norm

I buy gas from an Iranian immigrant, he owns the station. His mother recently died in Tehran, it was damn near impossible for him to go home to bury her and come back to his family and business. 

The handy convenience store not far from our house up in the canyon is owned by a Syrian, his sons, born here run the store from 6am to midnight, 7 days a week. They have family in Aleppo.

I buy an occasional cigar from an Afghan immigrant, he owns a little tobacco store near a super market where we shop. His kids, born here, are as American as you can get.

The Iranian, the Syrians and the Afghani are all Muslims, they don't wear their religion on their sleeves like some Christians do. The Afghani at Christmas wished me a Merry Christmas and added, 'we are all the children of Abraham, peace be with you my friend".

These people are not scary, they are not trying to overturn our system or our culture. They are adding to the colorful and beautiful fabric of American life just like our immigrant forefathers did. 

If these people bother you, you're not a "Real American".