Written by: Joe T. Ludwig
The other week, I was home alone with the kids while Caroline was out of town. When I asked Lilly what she wanted to watch, she told me “dinosaurs”. I knew what she meant. Recently, my mom introduced her to the original The Land Before Time movie and it must have made an impression on her. The Land Before Time isn’t on any of the streaming platforms that we subscribe to, however, we have it on DVD (I know such a foreign concept these days). I remember watching The Land Before Time sequels a lot as a kid (not so much the first one because that was really scary. I skipped a few scenes when the kids watched it). As we watched Little Foot and his friends try to find the Great Valley, nostalgia came over me and I started remembering some of the movies that I watched during my childhood.
Immediately, “An American Tail“, which was directed and produced by the same people as The Land Before Time, came to mind. An American Tail stars Fievel Mousekewitzes, a seven-year-old Russian-American immigrant who comes to America to seek a better life after their home is attacked and destroyed by the anti-Semitic Cossacks. I know, this is heavy stuff, but they make it “kid-friendly” by making it animated and making all the characters animals, specifically mice and cats.
This movie, unfortunately, isn’t available for streaming on any of the platforms that we have (an unfortunate pattern that I’ve noticed) and we don’t have this one on physical media (though we probably should). However, I did find a playlist on YouTube, though I do not recommend using this method to watch the movie. It was so bad that we had to stop watching after the first 30 minutes. The first scene of the movie features the Moskowitz family celebrating Hanukkah and imagining a better life in America.
They sing:
“But there are no cats in America
And the streets are paved with cheese
Oh, there are no cats in America
So set your mind at ease.”
After the Mouseklewitzes family becomes homeless, they travel to Germany where they board a boat whose destination is New York City. The movie doesn’t sugarcoat the journey. They deal with severe storms and Fievel even goes overboard and is separated from his family.
As we celebrate America’s birthday, I can’t help but think about immigrants like Fievel and his family. The “American Tail” of Fievel is, of course, fiction but his story represents so many people who went through hell to come to America to seek a better life. This includes my family. My grandparents were originally born in present-day Romania and had to flee their home with nothing but the clothes on their backs or risk facing the wrath of the Soviet Army, whose directive was to rape and pillage as they invaded Eastern Europe. My Oma and Opa were only adolescents when they were forced to leave everything behind in 1945.
When he told me stories of him fleeing his home, my Opa told me that he was shot at. Imagine being only 10 years old, leaving your home because you fear the invading Red Army and getting shot at by American planes. They ended up in a refugee camp where they stayed for five years before their paperwork to come to America was finally approved.
The story of how my Oma and Opa came to America isn’t unique. Back then, millions of immigrants went through a similar process traveling to America to seek a better life. Throughout its relatively short history, that is what America has always provided for those who traveled here: a better life. America is the world’s sanctuary, the land of the free, and the home of the brave. And on this fourth of July, I am thinking about my Oma and Opa’s (and millions of other immigrants) journey to America and what they sacrificed in order to get here.
America is the greatest country on earth. Full stop. When I think about what my grandparents went through and I compare my life to their life, it’s night and day. Sure, we have our problems but those problems are microscopic compared to the rest of the world. For example, I can’t say that my biggest problem when I was 10 was getting shot at by a military plane. I didn’t have to travel by sea to get here risking starvation, sickness, or shipwreck. The biggest issue that my generation has to worry about is whether or not Starbucks has our favorite drink in stock.
So on this Independence Day, I am thinking about all of the immigrants who had to leave everything behind and risk everything, up to and including death, to get here. I don’t think that Americans these days understand how good they have it and, that perplexes me. The Fourth of July isn’t about fireworks and picnics, although that is how we might celebrate it. It’s about the blood that the American “rebels” shed to be free of the English dictatorship. It’s about how we declared our God-given rights that we have as humans and won.
Look, in my opinion, we need a lot more gratitude and a lot less complaining in the public square that is the internet (looking at you Twitter). So on behalf of me and everyone at Craft Parenting, I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who stands up and protects our country day in and day out. Whether that is the police, fire, or our armed service THANK YOU so much for making our country the way it is and for making it a destination that people around the world continue to seek, by any means necessary.
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