Gratitude and Ingratitude
Nobody says it better than Mark Steyn. In his take down of Jeremy Wright and his protege, Barack Obama, he makes an interesting and instructive comparison between Irving Berlin and Michelle Obama.The song the Reverend Wright won’t sing is by Irving Berlin, a contemporary of Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin and Lorenz Hart, all the sophisticated rhymesters. But only Berlin could have written without embarrassment “God Bless America.” He said it directly, unaffectedly, unashamedly — in seven words:Irving Berlin came to the United States at a time when if you were going to make it, you had to make it on your own. There were no government handouts ready for each and every immigrant, legal or illegal, who made it to these shores. Rather than seethe and whine about the hardships and the anti-Jewish prejudice of the day, he worked to succeed and get past all of the hardships and prejudice.
God Bless America
Land that I love.
Berlin was a Jew and he suffered slights: He grew up in the poverty of New York’s Lower East Side. When he made his name and fortune, his marriage to a Park Avenue heiress resulted in her expulsion from the Social Register. In the Thirties, her sister moved in with a Nazi diplomat and proudly flaunted her diamond swastika to Irving. But Berlin spent his infancy in Temun, Siberia (until the Cossacks rode in and razed his village) and he understood the great gift he’d been given:
God Bless America
Land that I love.
The Reverend Wright can’t say those words. His shtick is:
God damn America
Land that I loathe.
My grandparents came to the U.S. from Russia and Poland around the same time Berlin did, and for the same reasons. As Jews, they wanted to escape the Cossacks, the pogroms, the hatred that kept them prisoner in the ghettos. While neither of my grandfathers made the same kind of living Berlin did, they both contributed to the U.S., made a decent living and raised families. Actually, neither one of them did anywhere near as well, even, as Barack and Michelle Obama, but I never heard either one of them ever complain about having to work hard and struggle. They didn't think anyone owed them anything beyond what they earned. They were able to bounce back from setbacks without demanding welfare. Their children went to public schools, rode busses to get places, and had no resentment about their situation. At least, I never heard it if they did. They were a different breed back then than we are today.
So, Michelle Obama, shut up and stop your whining. You have more than most people in the world can even dream of.
Labels: Irving Berlin, Mark Steyn, Michelle Obama, Obama
posted by Harry @ 12:57 PM
2 comments
CHALLAH AKBAR
