An acquaintance owns a store in a high crime neighborhood on the Archipelago island of Decatur.
He immigrated to America from the middle east looking for economic opportunity and a better quality of life. He is not so different from Decatur’s original settlers of the early eighteen hundreds. Though he does not live in a log cabins of his own construction, the wooden building his business is housed in is almost as old as those original cabins.
I call him an entrepreneurial pioneer for another reason too. It can be tough enough to run your own business when the neighborhood is generally safe. But you need the old fashion pioneer’s spirit when surrounded with the heightened crime issues of his location.
A few years ago, he opened up his store in the morning and stepped into the scene at the beginning of this video below.
During the night, while they were closed, a vehicle ran into the side of the building those merchandisers refrigerators are located on.
He realized this when he stepped up to the glass doors and saw daylight streaming into the walk-in behind them, through a very large whole in the wall of the store.
If you listen carefully to the audio, other cars are passing by the store during the accident.
As far as I know the driver was never apprehended and the insurance company never fully compensated him for the damage. Fixing that hole was a very big expense for them to pay for.
It has been three years since that incident and he is still there operating his store. Every so often I drive by and I see some improvement to the property. Recent projects include a new roll down security door and new black top and striping in the small parking lot.
The big hole in the building is gone but not forgotten. The new siding from the repair job, which does not match the older siding around it, will mark that unfortunate event for years to come.
It also marks his determination not to give up on his dream to have a better life in America.
It is a testament to the fact that what he has now is better then what he had in the past and he embraces that and continually works to improve it.
Even in the land of opportunity, he realizes that there is no replacement for positive determination and honest work built on hope in a brighter future.
My relatives that immigrated from Italy had that same view of their new home. They too believed that what they had in America was better then what most had in the world and they were quick to defend it.
In these turbulent times we should be too. We should sing it’s praises, thank God for it’s founding principles and work to build it up.
There are many groups that don’t sing the praises of this nation and don’t embrace our system; a system that offers plenty of opportunities for those who are willing to pursue them. Their goal, their daily struggle, is to tear down what we have built as citizens of this country.
If we believe those that would tear it down what could they replace it with that is better for all?
Five thousand years of civilization has given few, if any, examples of a governmental system that can provide so much opportunity and personal liberty to so many.
As a nation, we must continue the work of the founders to secure our individual liberties, our economic prosperity and our national security. For over two hundred years the founding documents have allowed us to do that. Building on the principle found in those documents will serve us well for another two hundred years and beyond.
Happy Thanksgiving and God bless America.
Prairie Beacon 