I Just Cried

[mountain grammy]

47. I was born in the USA, as was my mom,

but my grandparents, aunts and uncles on my mother's side were all immigrants. As a young boy, one of my aunts' husband escaped from Russia with his two sisters after their parents were murdered during a pogrom around 1919. He was about 7, his sisters teenagers. They hid in barns and walked for miles, until finally, with the help of American relatives, they made it to America. My grandparents, along with my aunt and uncle lived in the Warsaw ghetto until they made it to America, where they lived in a Brooklyn ghetto. My aunt said the living conditions weren't much better, but they were no longer afraid. They were in America where all things were possible! Believe me, I was raised to appreciate freedom every day.
But for all the steps forward that I've seen in my lifetime, and there have been many, I now fear we are taking too many steps back. I never want to see America become the place my ancestors came from. We can have all the "things" in the world, but freedom from fear is a necessity. We lose a piece of that freedom with every mass murder.