By Kathleen Roos
The final installment:
“If you believe a lie, even though it’s a lie and not really true, it becomes true for you because that is what you believe.” Life Point via Joyce Meyers
“If a government is big enough to give you all the stuff you need, then the government is big enough to take it all away.” Mark Brnovich, Arizona Attorney General
I retired from my Navy career late in 2010 when I returned from Iraq. I was well received by my military counterparts and joint services civilians but not really my own colleagues. I found this distressing. Continued my part time fitness jobs and did environmental related volunteer work for the Marine Sanctuary and the National Parks. I however missed the environmental work so when offered the opportunity to teach biology at the University at Laverne I jumped. Have enjoyed teaching biology and energy physics. My problem with online education since the COVID lock-downs comes from what I feel is true education. I took my students on island hikes of the Channel Islands and other National Parks. I had them performing habitat restoration work, removing invasive species and planting native ones. We did environmental and beach clean ups and toured the Channel Islands Maritime and the National Parks Museums. I had them on wildlife tracking training and bird identification and migration hikes. I had friend professors come in to provide talks on bat biology and a marine biologist lecture with specimens from the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution and a lecturer on establishing a business in wetlands restoration. All this effort was lost during COVID and saddens me to this day. But those students let me know they had never experienced anything like these activities and learned things they will never forget.
I believe America matters, and from most in this compilation of immigrant stories, the people who came to his country agree. America is made up of good people coming from all walks of life and many come from an immigrant background. There are always exceptions everywhere but when it comes to inviting immigrants into one’s country the U.S. far exceeds any other nation in the world. When there are disasters anywhere in the world it is the citizens of the United States who give the most and often bring in the most support.
Americans are a kind people and do care about each other and other peoples. Yet a select few are trying to tear this reality apart. Americans do care about illegals and the many attempting crossing borders illegally. And please don’t give me this “we are all equal in the eyes of God.” That is true but countries must establish borders or they are not a country! The irony is many supporting open borders are leftist that are agnostic or even atheist so you really can’t have it both ways. But right there is a rub. When one already chooses to violate a country’s’ laws, it puts the citizenry of that country in danger and they are saying they don’t care about those citizens. If you are one to say then the law is wrong. Then we have a system in place that can and does fix laws that do not work. It is a process and why our founding fathers established our Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical Monarch, and our U.S. Constitution establishing three equal branches of government to provide balance and remedy our growth as a society in support of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution was amended over the years and became our nation’s fundamental law. However, the broad language in the Constitution is illuminated by principles set forth in the Declaration, written 11 years earlier. The founding fathers realized that moral reasoning understandable to all, and not political will is the basis of our political system. If reason is the foundation of the Fathers’ vision, the method of how we justify our political order, and liberty is its aim, thus, the cardinal moral truths are these:
That all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to ensure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed (Cato Institute 2021).
The Founders continued to base their reasoning on “right reason” and outlined the moral foundation of a free society. Only then, did they turn to government. We the people are to secure our rights, our natural rights we create to live our lives. The powers of the government must be derived from our consent. Thus, you can see the Founders limited government many times. They wanted to devise a government that was strong enough to secure our rights against domestic and foreign oppression, yet not be so extensive as to be oppressive itself. The Preamble itself states “We the people”, for the purpose that all power comes from the people, not the government, not elected officials and not lifelong bureaucrats and the media. Only certain powers were delegate by the people to the government and those not delegated were reserved to the States. We the people wanted the power of government limited. In many writings, i.e., the Federalist Papers, the Founders intended the doctrine of enumerated powers to be our principal defense against overweening government. The Founding Fathers went beyond devising powers between the national and state governments, leaving most of the power with the states or with the people. They additionally separated powers within the national government into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial and then devised a series of checks and balances to further restrain those powers.
In the end no constitution can be self-enforcing. Government officials must fulfill their oaths to uphold the Constitution they were voted to defend. We the people must continue to be vigilant in seeing that they do.
America simply cannot in practicality, economically or morally accept and assimilate all the peoples of the world that want to come here. No country can or is any other country asked to do something so frivolous. Whether that bothers your sensitivities or not, it is just not possible. And if we are as bad as George Soros and his minions tell you we are, then why are these thousands of people attempting to come here. I ask you, why? Is it right for Americans to be mandated to wear masks, not travel, be locked down, not visit family and friends, turn on each other, be mandated to take vaccines all at the same time hundreds of thousands of unvetted, unvaccinated, unmasked peoples from all over the world (not just Mexico or South America) come across our border and are moved into cities without their officials or citizenry even being notified? That is unconstitutional, and totally ignored by the current administration that is actually driving this train and it is morally wrong.
Allow me to clarify. I have traveled all over the world. It is the U.S. Department of State and CDC requirements that we receive vaccines for yellow fever, tuberculosis, pertussis, measles, cholera, polio, small pox, hepatitis A, B and C to name a few (I even had to get a rabies vaccine when I traveled to Iraq) when traveling to many places abroad and all of the immigrants coming across our borders are from these very same locations. That is immoral for our government to do that to our citizens
Many issues require our attention about immigration and many other policies. But attempting to tear apart a system and a people that have demonstrated several hundred years of success, destroying our history and using the race card at every turn and calling us a racist country is dead wrong. Read through the common threads throughout this compilation about kindnesses shown by Americans to others. I will share two additional illustrative stories about who Americans are.
A man was heading cross country early in his career for a job interview. He was driving with his teenage son and didn’t have much money and really needed this job and could not afford to fly. They were headed for the Pacific Northwest from the east coast. The son is relaying this story. Their vehicle breaks down on route and they are in the middle of nowhere in the desert. The west looks very different than easy access to thruways and cities of the east and what they are used to. Cell phone coverage is patchy at best. His father is frugal and they are traveling with not much money and why the job is so important. On the side of the road, no cell service the father is despondent and we begin to walk toward the closest town. Along comes a pickup truck and pulls over to offer assistance. He tells them that all the service stations in town are closed as it is Sunday but he’ll give them a lift into town, about 7 miles away and ask his brother who owns a shop if he can help. All my father could see was dollar signs and that we can’t afford this but we are stuck. We get to town and to the brother’s house. He immediately sends out a tow truck and tells my dad not to worry about it. Dad is really leery and not trusting. He tells us we must be tired, thirsty and hungry so his wife offers to fix them a meal. I can’t pay you for this my father says. Don’t worry about it. They get out to the vehicle; it is towed to his brother’s service shop. Dad told them about the job interview the next day. They open their shop and get to work. Don’t have the right parts. Contact another friend in the neighboring town, and the part is brought over from 20 miles away. Dad is really starting to panic on what this is going to cost and that he doesn’t have the money.
The original pickup truck driver takes us to his home where his wife has made us a meal. My father says no thanks but they insist. They told us to take a shower and cool off, as it is very hot in the desert. They give us a change of clothes so we will be more comfortable on the road. And when we come outside our vehicle is parked out front ready to go! We are in disbelief.
My father looks at me with this, now we are going to ripped off to the max. This is how he felt. He reluctantly asks so how much is this going to cost me? The pick-up truck driver just says good luck with the job interview and when you can send us a check for the cost of the parts and hands him a note with an address and cost of the parts. Dad is speechless.
We got in the car and my father did not say a word for the remainder of the trip. When we got to our destination he said to me, I want you to remember that this is what America is all about. It made me remember.
And a recent story from friends about America’s goodness. The following story is not from an immigrant but from someone who appreciates the goodness of Americans and has faith in God. The following is Stephanie’s story taken from Citizens Journal.
follow. This story describes a series of acts that confirm my belief that there is goodness left in the world. Depending on your viewpoint, did it all happen randomly by pure chance at the right time and place or by divine intervention in answer to my prayers to God?
We had a family emergency to retrieve a relative’s newborn baby who had many problems related to parental drug use. A 911 call was made because of domestic violence between the father and mother. They had been arguing outside and it got violent so neighbors called. When the police got there, it turns out they had left the baby in a swing that was rated for an older child. The baby was not even 3 weeks old. The police contacted child services and the next day they came and assessed the situation. The mother convinced child services to allow us to get the child instead of putting her into foster care. We got the call and we agreed after speaking with child services. The baby and mother were supposed to stay with a neighbor until we could get there. Thus, we needed to make it across the country in three days driving over 2200 miles. Our neighbors jumped right in and took care of mail, cleaned the house, and got rid of trash, so we could get on the road first thing as we did not know when we would be coming back. We got on the road that night and drove through Vegas and across Death Valley, up and down the Utah and Colorado mountains and through the corn fields of Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois and kept going east.
We have a 2007 Ford Focus with standard transmission referred to as a stick shift that has over 274,000 miles. We were stuck in a traffic jam in Nevada when the temperature gauge starting rising and suddenly the road cleared. We had no idea of why. The next day as we left our hotel in Colorado, we were told to check road reports as mudslides caused parts of I-70 to close. The pass opened that morning. As we traversed the mountains of Colorado on our way to Denver, we ran into road construction again at the top of approximately a 5% grade pass near Parshall, Colorado.
Broken down cars and trucks lined the side of the road everywhere. We almost crested the top of the pass when our clutch overheated not allowing us to shift into any gear. We could not move. We rolled the car to the side of the road as angry drivers sped past showing no concern to allow us to get the car to the side of the road safely.
Once we got off to the side of the road, a motorcyclist stopped to help. He had a towing company. He was trying to call his shop as we were on the phone with our insurance company to get a tow. Next thing we know a tow truck with a SUV already on its bed stopped and picked us up, bypassing other cars.
This tow truck driver helped call our insurance company to get approval as we were on the road. Our insurance company had the towing company take us west to Breckenridge instead of east to Golden. The boss of the towing company called our insurance company and directed us to a transmission shop that was located in the direction we needed to go and close enough that we did not have to pay extra towing charges.
Our driver, Kyle always has his dogs with him. That helped me as I got to pet his dogs and calm down on the trip through the passes to Golden. What a great way to calm a distraught driver especially if kids are involved. We got to a transmission shop but they were backed up and the earliest they could to us was the following day. The owner asked us what happened. We told him about the baby, where we needed to be the next day and why. He had his mechanics deal with the car, took it for a road test and got us back on the road. He refused to charge us. We were able to drive straight through to our destination through withering rainstorms in Nebraska and Iowa and no more mountains.
Before we began our return trip, we took the car to a shop to make sure there would be no issues on the return trip. Once we got to our destination, we took over the care of our granddaughter and then of course we had other issues to solve. We found an Extended Stay America about 30 minutes from where we needed to go. The staff and residents saw the newborn and accepted us just like family. They even gave us a gift bag of baby stuff to help us out.
They are still in contact with us. While eating at Shadow Brewing Company, a couple with a 6-month-old came in with a baby in its car seat. I went to talk and ask them for pointers and we got into a discussion on car seats. Her husband went out to our car and helped us adjust the seat. Turns out the car seat we were given had no adjustments and the baby’s head rocked. I had to hold her head while the car was in motion. We didn’t know any better; we are in our 60’s and when we were kids most cars did not have seat belts and there were no car seats back then. The wife set us up with a 20% coupon and told us what store to go to that will help. We thanked them for their advice and told them we were going that evening to buy a new car seat but the baby had a meltdown so we went back to the hotel instead.
When I opened the diaper bag, I found a note from the couple with $200 to buy a good safe car seat for our grand baby. Are you seeing a pattern here? We were in desperate need and God put someone or something in place to take care of it. The next day to the baby store. The staff had us bring in our stroller and helped us pick out the best seat for our needs and set it up. They could have sold us a new stroller and car seat but made sure that we bought only what we needed. I then spoke with the manager and explained about the couple’s generosity. He helped us set up a gift certificate in this couple’s name for someone who really needs help.
We took the northern route back to lessen the heat load on the car and us and to avoid the fires. There were great folks all along the way. We made reservations in Gillette, Wyoming at the Arbuckle Lodge. The young lady who made our reservation stayed late and helped take care of the baby while we got our stuff moved in and the hotel had free laundry so we were able to have clean clothes. Now that’s service. We stopped for food and for the baby to have a break in Park City, Utah. A lady noticed that I was having trouble trying to feed the baby, hold onto the diaper bag and the baby while my husband was trying to find a parking spot. She offered to help.
Turns out she is a nurse that works with teenagers trying to get off drugs. She gave me some great tips on what to look for and resources for information. We stopped in Reno at Great Basin Brewery for food and the wait staff got us ice for the baby bottles and found out what highways were open and closed and helped us determine the best route around the fires to go home.
Once home, our neighbors had filled our refrigerator with food. They come over daily to take the baby out in the stroller, help with feedings and diaper changes. They provide us with all kinds of items needed from a pack n play to a baby play station to a swing but most important of all, support. One of our neighbors, a retired sheriff told us about Tri-County Regional Center. We called and in less than a week, they scheduled an assessment and set up Early Start therapy to minimize any side effects from the drugs in the baby’s system while in the womb.
We located a great baby doctor who got her records from the clinic and hospital so that we could get her immunization on track. This was no small feat. Everything fell in place to ensure that the baby has the best chance she can have. Without our neighbors, I would still be looking for help. The baby is doing great. The ‘marina baby’ as she is called has a great support group. Keep in mind I have never changed a diaper in my life, and my husband’s last child was 35 years ago. It is not as if we know anything about raising kids today and apparently, many rules have changed. For everyone who helped us out and are still helping us we want to say thank you. We could not raise the ‘marina baby’ without your help.
I took the car in for a checkup. Our local mechanic spent awhile checking the vehicle, determined everything was good except maybe the clutch, and set us up with an appointment at a transmission shop for a free inspection. They spent hours going over it and said good to go. Considering everything our little two-door hatchback Focus went through I believe someone definitely was looking out for it and us.
These are most of the major interactions that occurred during our trip. Along the way, we had all kinds of smaller acts of kindness. We stopped at mostly brewpubs and truck stops. Why you may ask, because usually the people who own and/or go to brew pubs and travel stops go out of their way to help and do not judge you. For those with kids you know the look, why are you traveling with a newborn what a bad parent you are.
You can believe that all these interactions were just random but the chances that all these occurring at the right time and place is a bit much for me to believe that it was all just random occurrences. I pray that you may see that God is working in our world. He cannot stop bad things from happening but provides the opportunity for people to help deal with the bad. Will you choose to help others? Will you choose to believe? (End of Stephanie’s story).
Some don’t believe in God or in Faith, whatever that may mean to you. That is your right especially in this country. I have had a struggle through my life to where I stood. But I have to ask. Why not? What do you lose by believing? I watched a TV documentary recently on a serial rape/murder investigation. A father was being interviewed. His daughter had been taken. In the interview he states; “and here I am a total atheist, praying to God to please bring my daughter back to me.” The irony is plain to see. Another instance was an experiment being conducted about cheating. In this experiment one group was asked prior to taking the test if they could state any of the Ten Commandments. Some knew one or two, some knew none but did know what they represented. The other groups were just giving the test. Upon completion, only the group asked about the Ten Commandments, even if they did not know of them specifically did not cheat. The other groups all had cheaters. And finally, I looked up the quote “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” Otherwise known as the Golden Rule. When I looked up the basis of this quote, I found it in some version in every faith known on this planet!
Some have asked me how I found immigrants and others to be interviewed and if this was a difficult undertaking. Many of these interviewees are my neighbors, friends and/or local small business owners. Many are your neighbors; you just may not know it. It just shows how we don’t get to know each other anymore and maybe we need to try harder to get to know one another again. Sometimes interviews were difficult if there was a language barrier and I needed a translator but most often I interviewed people privately face-to-face and that was the best way to go. When others were invited in, the sessions devolved into an ‘ain’t it awful’ complaint session, or a social engagement. I had to learn to establish boundaries. Some who volunteered to be interviewed wanted to remain anonymous but then changed their mind and said ‘no this is too important and I want to be identified’. These are true heroes!
I always conducted the interviews the old-fashioned way by taking notes. I did not take the recommendation to record and I think that was really the best way to go. When I did attempt recording it was very difficult to hear people and often a lot of their information was lost so I had to go back and re-interview by taking notes again. On occasion an interviewee really wanted to be involved and then they backed out due to fear of reprisals or impact on local business.
On several occasions people would schedule a meeting with me and not show up. I gave them three times but then did not pursue. I was left waiting for hours at times and then sometimes I had no shows, but overall, it was a labor of love and hope. I found it was a very rewarding adventure and I learned so much from all these interviewees, even those I may not have agreed with or those that decided not to be interviewed.
My hope is that others will read this compilation and gain as much as I did by interviewing and getting to know these people. I feel we all made a connection. Once the installments were published in Citizens Journal it seemed like a flood gate opened and I was getting all sorts of requests from all over the country to be interviewed or people identifying others for interviews. Some of these had to be done over the phone and not in person and that is why you will see questions in bold (from my questionnaire) to make it a bit more organized and consistent.
These are just some stories about the goodness of Americans. Again, it is my hope that in reading these stories, and those of immigrants who have come here and identified much of these kindnesses of Americans you will recognize the pursuit of the American Dream is evident through these interviews. As readers focus on the common threads running through these stories, you will become more informed. We are reminded that our government represents the people and that we elect representatives to do what they say they will do. Our founders relied on the wisdom of Americans to elect representatives that they can trust to honor their duty to represent our Constitution. It is our inalienable right to expect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and for us to foster our country’s strengths to ensure a better future for all Americans.
I believe one can choose in this Country to be a victim, a survivor or a thriver. For many years I considered myself a survivor, now I choose thriver. America represents the best of us. It is a country of caring, often God fairing people, who demonstrate an unbridled generosity toward others in this world. It is a country of achievers, risk takers, entrepreneurial attributes of creativity, inventiveness, craftsmanship and hard work. “We the people” don’t respond well to being told to lower our expectations. To accept less and become part of mediocrity is not why these people came to America. It is also the slippery slope to socialism. Read their stories. Be motivated, study history and learn about what makes us proud to be American.
“Freedom Is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the blood stream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” Ronald Reagan
“Why do our enemies see us as Americans and we Americans see each other as the enemy?” Kathleen Roos Ph.D.
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