Don Surber has a link to a family tale in Alarming News which serves to remind us why we’re so fortunate. This blogger is Russian-American. In a post from July 20th entitled “Sometimes I can’t believe it when I look up in the mirror,” she explains the origin of her name:
All Russian female names end in “A”. My grandmother was Sarra, her sister Raya. My other grandma was Antonina. My mom is Nina. Her sister is Gyala. So, when people meet me and learn I was born in the Soviet Union they ask “so what is your Russian name?” When I tell them that Karol is my name, in Russian, in English, in whatever language they choose, they are confused.
I tell them the story: My father got permission to leave Russia when my mother was pregnant with me. His mother and aunt were already in America and he had to go, it was the only hope for us all to leave.
Leaving the Soviet Union was unlike leaving most places. You were stripped of your citizenship and told you can never return. You were an enemy, even your friends might shun you. I think that was fine with my father, he was American before he ever set foot here. He was a freedom-loving Capitalist who loved rock&roll, wanted to see the world, practice medicine and raise his family. He wanted me to have an American name, so that when I reached this great country, no one would think of me as different. I would be American, by virtue of my name, almost immediately. He sent my mother a list of American names and she chose Karol. A Russian person may pronounce is Kyeh-ral. Of course, they couldn’t know that spelling it with a “K” would mark me as different, but in a good way, I think. It lets me never forget where I was born, that while I’m American, and so blessed to be here, I could’ve just as easily ended up spending my life in the place my father refers to as “prison” with a name like Masha, Inna, Katya or some variation thereof. It reminds me that I am lucky.
Today is 29 years that I’m in America.
May Karol-with-the-American-name continue to prosper.
Note: Click on her link and scroll down to see her childhood picture as a brand new citizen.
Hat tip: the indefatigable Larwyn
[The story ends happily ever after right here]
For a thousand years Venice had a unique trading relationship with the great Muslim dynasties who shared their magnificent art and culture in a way that still defines the city today.
Word has finally percolated up to the management of VisionTV. They have belatedly discovered that Canadians in general, and their viewers in particular, do not approve of exhortations to jihad, nor anti-Semitism, nor calls for the Jews to be exterminated.
Vilks has gotten written complaints from Muslims.
We have often noted in this space that Canada is ahead of the United States (and even parts of Europe) with its “hate speech” laws. Eventually we will catch up with our northern neighbor — Democrats in Congress are working on that right now — but for the time being, Canada leads the way in the illiberal suppression of free speech.
What kind of fight is it that you want to support for the Iraqis?
The study shows that we get very irritated by people who speak with accents believed to stem from the Middle East and less irritated by someone with an accent believed to stem from Germanic-speaking countries, such as England, Germany and the Nordic countries.
As I’ve said repeatedly, I’m a non-flyer. Not because I’m afraid of flying; planes are simply cramped buses with wings. But as the sheer stupidity and incompetence of our air security has become inescapably clear, there is only one choice besides driving. The only plane I’d be willing to step on would have to have painted on it, in big letters somewhere: EL AL. They seem to be the sole air carrier that takes terrorism seriously. I wonder why that is?