Most of us were immigrants
Thanksgiving is here, a day to be grateful for all we have. It’s also a day to be grateful for where we are and why.
I have an immigrant ancestor, as do the vast majority of people living in this wonderful country of ours. He and a small band of desperate people managed to scrape up enough money to charter a small boat; they decided the chance of dying at sea was preferable to living as they had been.
When they arrived, they were surrounded by people whose language they could not understand but came to realize they needed these new friends desperately. The newcomers were not deported or thrown in jail. They were welcomed.
The ancestor of whom I speak was my ninth great-grandfather and his name was Deacon William Brewster. The small boat he arranged to transport his little tribe was the Mayflower. That makes me a member of the family of the very first immigrants to this land.
Now suppose, that somewhere along the way my ancestral family had decided they didn’t want any more immigrants, that they had all the farmers they needed. Suppose my family had decided that your immigrant ancestors had to leave. Suppose my family had thrown you in jail or torn up your familial relationships. After all, we were here before your people.
With the exception of the native peoples of this land, every single one of us is an immigrant, and almost all of us had to be accepted by those already settled in the country. That’s not to say all groups were met with open arms; cultural, lingual and ethnic differences made many hostile to the newcomers, but eventually they were accepted and settled into life in America.
At Thanksgiving we should be grateful not only for the assistance by the Native Americans who allowed the Pilgrims to survive, but for all the immigrants who came before us and allowed later people to stay and enrich our nation.
And finally, true gratitude means paying it forward. Try to look at newcomers the way others looked on your immigrant family. Try to realize they only want the same thing your forefathers wanted: to be here, to be given a chance to be part of our great country.
Tina Owens
Kailua-Kona