America First: What does that mean and other thoughts on immigration, raising kids and reading
If it is just a conceit to pay the people we hire a living wage, and it may be but I am betting not, we still impact the lives of the people we hire with a single conceit and that conceit, if shared by enough of us, will impact the broader economy in which they negotiate and live.
We all have an immigrant story that we have likely been remembering over the past few months.
Here is mine.
My grandfather, Artin Aslanian, took seven years to get to New York City. He had to leave Turkey on account of, you know, the state sponsored massacre of Armenians.
On his way by foot and boat, he learned seven languages and with no formal education tested into a prestigious high school in Boston. He had to shine shoes, among other things, to pay for school and to put food on his own table.
He was blessed with his mind and he knew it and he used it. As the youngest child, he navigated the passage through seven countries over several years for his family. My grandfather referred to his sharps as genetic roulette. He inherited his IQ and he let us know, never heavy-handedly, that we too benefited from genetic roulette by virtue—and by virtue I mean dumb luck and blessing synonymously—of being born in the United States.
I did nothing to be born where I was born and into what I was born. That was the doing of forces that will forever remain out of my reach. The woman we pay to clean our toilets did nothing to be born where she was born and into what she was born. No one gets to take credit, and no one should be forced to take the hit— or, if you prefer, the debt—for that.
On Sept. 24, there will be another America First rally and we all can make no mistake this time around. The rally is meant to divide us not based on our diversity, but based rather on how we react to immigration.
Whether or not you show up is up to you. I am no better or worse for feeling compelled to go and see with my own eyes where we stand on immigration. I cannot, by definition, take credit or ask for your debt, for feeling compelled.
The cool thing about literature, I told my kids, is that in a work of real literature, every character is understood and if every character is understood, then we learn, through literature, to feel and expand our capacity for empathy.
And then I offered them this quotation from Harper Lee. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
And then this quotation. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Again from Harper Lee.
So I had a cherished moment to tell my children this is what books mean to me. (quotation number one).
And then to share with them that I have no idea if I am right, ever, but courage comes from knowing you probably won’t win and doing it anyway because maybe you won’t win, but someone down the line might be better off because you had the courage of your convictions. (quotation number two).
And we all know that Harper Lee really only wrote one book, but what a book it is.
Local resident Lisa Aslanian is the mother of twin teenagers. She earned her doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York. She is pursuing a masters in clinical psychology.
Editor’s note: TheAmerican First rally planned for Sept. 24 has been cancelled.
