Blue Collar Muse

My friend, James Whittington, posted this over at his blog. I’ve copied a few things from his post. Visit James and read the entire thing.

My friend Adam A. is Kurdish from northern Iraq.

Adam watched as Saddam Hussein’s “police” gunned down his brother in the street. Adam was arrested and tortured on several occasions, and he’s got the scars to prove it. He was forcefully conscripted into the Iraqi army, but escaped from Iraq prior to the Gulf War. …

Adam was a well-educated man of means in Iraq. He left several homes and quite a bit of money in the bank there, and he’ll never be able to get any of it back. …

He’s not terribly angry or bitter about his life, but there are two things Adam is incredibly passionate about, Freedom and America. …

Adam is now a very proud American citizen who LOVES being free in America. Whenever I start to complain about politics, the government, high taxes, etc…, Adam just smiles and says: “But James, you are free!” As far as Adam is concerned being free in America is all that matters. Freedom trumps all other concerns.

A few days after the horrors of September 11, 2001 Adam and I met for dinner. We discussed the terrorist attack, Middle Eastern politics, immigration and of course freedom in America.

After listening to Adam expound on freedom over dinner, I told him that I wished more native born Americans understood the concept of “freedom” and appreciated America as much as he did. He then told me something in his broken English that I will never forget. “Freedom is a Crown. America wears it, but only other nations can see it.”

Amazing isn’t it? So many here in the USA, blind to the freedom we enjoy, resist the idea that we should export it while so many elsewhere will risk all to get here to possess it!

Thanks James - and thanks Adam - for reminding me of what it means to be an American and live here.

Thinking it’s true what they say about a “fresh” pair of eyes seeing things “old” eyes miss …

Blue Collar Muse

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 9:34 am and is filed under America First, Blogroll, Immigration, Individual Responsibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.