The Luck of a Birth Place….

 

I read articles about the dissent and horrors of the Middle East and other places in the world – and I ponder – Am I really lucky … the draw of the straw for me was the United States of America.  And my thinking is I don’t believe that we are lucky by where our birth takes place, but to whom we are born to… 

I am very proud of who my parents are and I love them very much, though their parents or grandparents made the sacrifice and moved to the United States to make a new beginning, to have the American dream… But, believe me, if the luck of the draw was that I had been born in any other country that wasn’t part of the “free world” – the strength of character my parents possess – they would have brought my brother and I to the “free world” as many of my friends’ parents have done for them.  They would have moved mountains and crossed rivers to provide our little family a comfortable and safe life …

Other Lucky Souls I know:

I have a friend that lives in Israel, and yet he’s Iraqi born – his parents carried him in their arms, and with only the clothes on their backs, across deserts and rough and unlivable terrains/dangerous conditions so that they could “live and be free” to be who and what they are – a nice Jewish family.  He was not lucky on the drawing to where he was born, but he was most certainly lucky to have been born to such a courageous couple!!!  A couple that defied a government and bigotry to give themselves and their son a life of freedom… that friend has grown up as a freeman, has traveled all over the world and is now settled, married and happy in his home in Israel …the way his life should be… and hopefully his children to come.

I have friends from Lebanon…and one story comes to mind: in the 70s I met a girl from Lebanon, and it amazed me when she told me (we were both approx. 8 or 9 yrs old at the time) that her family had to flee for their lives to America…because they were Catholic.  I couldn’t fathom at that age, why would anyone want to kill a Catholic family for being Catholic?  I’d only understood that it was Anti-Semitic behavior and beliefs that were dangerous in the Middle East – not also for Catholics/Christians alike.  As I grew up and met and made more friends that were Lebanese, I learned how dangerous it can be to be “different” in the Middle East  – and how lucky my friends were to have courageous parents to risk anything and everything to get their children out of such places – to start a new life in a free world… whether it be North America, South America, or Europe..etc.  Somewhere where they were not threatened by believing and being different than their neighbors.

The luck of the draw for one dear friend is that she was born to older parents who lived in Cuba.  The living conditions in Cuba are so alien to American standards, it’s not so much being poor, it’s the crazy rules, what you can or cannot buy or have – what is allotted to you… the threat of speaking up for yourself and the dangers of the corrupt government… my friends’ parents were divorced when she was very young, but her father could not fathom his only child living in such conditions – her father and mother knew what life had been like before Castro…before communism … they had not always been so poor…and scared.  Before her father died, when she was 5 yrs old, he paid all he had to get her mother and her to Spain to live with cousins… and then he got them to America…and then he died…but he died knowing that they were safe – in New York City… it brings tears to my eyes to think how lucky she was to have such a man for a father – who didn’t save himself to live in freedom those last years, but selflessly gave everything he had and could to see that his ex-wife and daughter would know freedom!  She is the MOST Gung-Ho American I know – her children have joined the Armed Forces, her patriotism is pretty uplifting!

I “highlight” these certain friends above, but that also doesn’t discount my other friends, friends that live here from other countries, like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Phillipines… so many people …and so many stories ….

SO, what brought this sentiment and LONG post on…. when I read:

“Witnesses described the streets of Tripoli as a war zone. Several residents said they believed that massacres had taken place overnight as forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi drove through the streets opening fire at will from the backs of pickup trucks”

“They would drive around, and they would start shooting, shooting, shooting,” said one resident reached by telephone. “Then they would drive like bandits, and they would repeat that every hour or so. It was absolute terror until dawn.” – from an article in New York Times.