My grandfather was born June 24, 1896 in Grodek, Galacia Austria. He immigrated to the United States (legally) December 4, 1912 from the Port of Bremen, Germany aboard the S. S. Kronprinzessin Cecilie. His name was changed by immigration officials for simplicity (?). His father's name was Andrew Dunas and his mother's name was Ana Zagski. His mother died when he was six and his father died when he was nine. He had a younger sister that died within a year after their father. This orphaned child ran away from his uncle's home after the man worked him from dawn to dusk on the farm. He wandered across Europe, working where he could and saving money for his dream of going to the United States of America.
I always thought my father was Polish. It was only last month that I learned that his father was born in Austria.
My grandfather declared $26.00 on his person when he disembarked at Ellis Island. That was a lot of money at that time. What will that amount get you today? How about a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, a pack of sandwich meat, a jar of mayonnaise and a six pack of brand name soda? At that time it would probably keep you set for a month or longer with a room and meals while you hunted for a job.
According to family information, my grandfather's pocket was picked and he started in the United States of America with nothing. He made his way to Michigan where his knowledge of five languages gave him an edge and he became a foreman at a logging camp after a month on the job.
He saved his money and went to Barber College in Detroit, Michigan (he did not get a student loan). He worked as a barber and saved his money. Before long he saved enough to buy out one of the partners. He gradually owned the largest barbershop in Detroit. He was 31.
We have lost sight of some things in our quest to become educated and enlightened. My grandfather never attended school, not one day in his lifetime. He spoke five languages, attended barber school and became a successful business man. He wanted my father to go to Harvard and if the stock market had not crashed, the desires of my grandfather may have been fulfilled.
My grandmother was twice widowed when she met my grandfather. She was an excellent seamstress, owned a candy store and two grocery stores prior to the crash. She was a hard working woman with an unquenchable spirit and an undying belief in the American Dream.
My grandmother went to the fourth grade and then was sent to work at the age of nine in a shirt factory. She worked ten hours a day, six days a week in Reading Pennsylvania. It was 1897. Times were different. In many ways they were better. You rapidly learned the value of hard work or you did not eat. That is a very Biblical object lesson. It was learned fast and hard.
So now, we have child labor laws to protect children and some never learn the value of work, much less the value of hard work. The government has stepped in to feed the poor with no assumption of repayment or working to pay it back. Any idea of having a work for welfare type program is met with angry protests by people who don't know any better; people who do not understand the value of working for what you get. I have been at the mercy of the government services and it SUCKS big time. It is degrading and demoralizing, but that is just my opinion.
When my grandparents and my father were growing up if a person suffered hardship, it was looked upon as something to be struggled through and learned from. Everyone had some sort of problem in their life.
In today's world, too many who start to suffer any kind of hardship are put into counseling immediately. There is definitely a place for counseling, but does everyone on the planet need counseling for everything? Can we not just wallow in our misery for a time while waiting on the Lord for guidance? Is it not possible to work (and I mean work) through our trials? I sometimes I think that the reason we have so many problems is that we do not have enough physical labor to make us just tired to the bone, too tired to think about our state of affairs. People now substitute exercise in a gym for the physical exertion of hard work or maybe just walking to work.
We no longer sleep well because we have not exerted ourselves. We have clogged arteries and migraines because we have desk jobs and watch too much TV. I sometimes wonder if the invention of electricity was a good idea. I like my indoor plumbing and have no desire to go back to walking to the outhouse, but do we really need electricity? It was just a thought. I obviously do like my internet and other electrical things.
Back to the point.
My grandparents immigrated to the United States of America legally. I enjoy the results of that legal immigration as did my father. Some of the requirements of citizenship was that they learned to speak English and learned about the Constitution of the United States and how the Government of their new country works.
I am hopeful that when people learn what it means to be a citizen, a legal citizen, of the United States of America that they will have more desire to immigrate legally with a drive to do what it takes to become a citizen.
Every country has its problems and I do feel that the freedoms we have may have contributed to the loss of some of them. We found out that we could legislate money to us. We could put people in Congress that would give us stuff and that is where we began the escalating debt and a decline in morality. If no matter what you do, the government will take care of you, why bother even trying to keep the family together? If the government will take over the obligations of the church, why support the church? Why even go to church if the government is going to supply all your needs and attempts to take the place of God?
We have taken the dreams and blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers and thrown them away for a dainty from the king's table. We have voted ourselves stuff and dug ourselves a fourteen trillion dollar hole. What were we thinking? We are now dying from over-abundance, excess and sloth.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
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