People often ask me: "How do you like America?"

O

Oleg Volk

Staff Alumnus
I tell them. I mention that every day I count my blessings (using all fingers and toes). That I count being here as the greatest manifestation of personal luck in my life. That the more I learn of other countries, the happier I am that I ended up here and not in the UK, Israel, South Africa or Australia, all of which were possible. I can travel abroad now but the urge to do so has abated: this country is big enough for me to travel about, even excluding the occupied territories like Wash DC and Chicago.

I don't think many people who ask this question realize how lucky they were to have a head start on happiness by being born here. Sometimes I hear people talk about going back to their country of origin (actually know people moving back to Ukraine, for instance). I think they are nuts.

Today, I am rich. When I have kids, I will be able to give them one of the greatest gifts possible: American citizenship. Of course, I will also give them rifles so they can keep that gift unmolested by evil.

It is past midnight here and I just wanted to share my thoughts. Certainly, I have experienced certain disappointments in the United States. However, the resilience of the natives and of the immigrants willing to trade relative security of their homelands for the freedoms and the opportunities of this great country Give me hope. I fly a flag at my workplace: it gives me joy to look at the symbol of the greatest country on earth and to realize that it is mine to share with dependable friends.

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Oleg "peacemonger" Volk

http://dd-b.net/RKBA
 
For all our faults, I can't think of a single nation I'd rather live in. Until I was 34, I had no idea just how blessed we were. Before then I'd never been to another country. Since then I've visited countries literally around the world, and none compare.

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
 
Oleg,

Glad to have you here. We're just about all immigrants or descendants of immigrants, and I'm awfully glad my ancestors did the same thing you're doing for your kids.

(Our families may have known each other way back when; my Mom's family left the Ukraine in the early 1900s when they got tired of the Saturday Night Entertainment in which drunken young people would ride on down to the ghetto and whup a few random Jews.)

It's a popular pastime to rant about what's wrong with America, and I'll grant that we're far from perfect. Still to paraphrase Lee Iacocca, if you can find a better place, live there. I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be.

<DJ: Our next song is dedicated to Oleg Volk!>

"Far, we've been traveling far,
Without a home, but not without a star.
Free, only want to be free,
We huddle close, hang on to a dream.

We're coming to America! We're coming to America!
We're coming to America! Today!"

--- Neil Diamond
 
Oleg typifies the type of immigrant this country should welcome with open arms. My old man said the same thing (Germany ca. 1922).

When I worked in an oil company, out of our 22-man team, there were three native-borns, me included.

Our lunches were the most fascinating time of my employment there because there was always some tidbit popping up. One of the most common was when someone would bitch about the political system in their country, and I'd ask, "Why didn't you throw the bums out?". Invariably, they'd reply, "Because they had all the guns".

The conversations would almost always end with, "You people don't know how good you have it here."

We need a constant upgrading of the gene pool with people who think like that.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Oatka:

We need a constant upgrading of the gene pool with people who think like that.[/quote]

No arguement from me on that point....I say, hell yeah! :)



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"Lead, follow or get the HELL out of the way."
 
"Why didn't you throw the bums out?". Invariably, they'd reply, "Because they had all the guns".

And unless we get REALLY active (perhaps even civil war in the end), the same will be said of America within 20 years.

Keep that in mind.

Glad you're here Oleg!
 
Welcome to your new country and my heart Oleg. I have a pretty good handle on the life of both classes in several eastern blok countries, plus short stays in some of the Brit colonies. You are SO right.

I agree with the above posts.

Those who care, must dare to defend what we have.

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev predicted confidently in a speech in Bucharest, Rumania on June 19, 1962 that: " The United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."
 
We definitely need more immigrants like Oleg here. Despite the many flaws we need to fix, there is no other place I would rather be. Sure, other countries are fine to visit but that's about it. I find it very intersting that nowadays it appears only immigrants like Oleg feel this way, certainly not the "Pepsi" generation.

One day I had a conversation with a Belo-Russian immigrant who is a colleague. I was expressing my irritation with immmigrants who come here, and then complain and whine about the US. Yes, we have faults and they may have valid points, and yes they have the right to free speech-- but something about coming here to take advantage of the benefits, then throwing dirt in our faces rubs me the wrong way. Especially when they are trying to import the very socialist insanity they were fleeing from. His response? "F*** them, they can get the hell out if they don't like it! This is the best country in the world." (No exaggeration). I was thinking, "right on" but at the same time wondering why more Americans don't express the same pride and appreciation. I figure it's because they are the Pepsi Generation, and don't know any better. Whereas, many immigrants have learned the hard way to appreciate life here. Hopefully, there will be enough of them coming here in the future to KEEP it that way.
 
And, Oleg, I am glad to call you a fellow American. When I hear people complain about immigration, I just shake my head and think about people like you.

Perhaps that is why we get so concerned about the direction our country is taking. This is the greatest country in the world, and we must do our best to keep it so.

Oleg, thank you for everything you do to help keep America free. Take care.

Regards from AZ
 
Oleg, God bless you, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

All 4 of my grandparents were immigrants (2 from Italy, 2 from Czechoslovakia-I guess it was Austria-Hungary at the time). Both grandads fought as volunteers against their native countries in World War I. My mom's brother was a tanker in Europe during WWII, my dad was Army right at the end of the war, and his 2 brothers were Korean War Marines, and I'm a Vietnam-era Navy vet. I don't consider myself as a hyphenated American, but I am proud of my immigrant heritage.

We're all lucky- I hope and pray we can keep this country great and free.
 
I think Oleg, along with other immigrants, has seen enough of the rest of the world to understand that patriotism is best not based on a piece of land, but on an ideal. He doesn't support Slick Willie simply because he's the president, he supports who supports the dream of America. It is ideas we are patriotic too, because ultimately countries change. I think Oleg recognizes that fact, and doesn't want to see that idea to which he is so loyal be taken away from the people of this nation, who did the impossible and changed the world in their founding.

While I despise my government, I do love my country, but my country is TFL, and my country is the kind of people that are on other boards like it, and others of the same nature.

It's gotta be a bitter thing for someone like Oleg, who has seen how screwed up the rest of the world is, to come here and see how many neat liberties we have, and then have to come into our nation at a time when they are being pilfered by the unwise.

Well Oleg, I'm happy you're here. I'm happy to have someone that understands the idea of "to thine own self be true". You are a patriot to the ideals who hold in high esteem, and I respect you for that. I wish we could ship off all the antis to Russia, and ship a few million more like you over to replace them.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
It's good and necessary to get a reminder lest we forget. I'm proud to call you a fellow American- because it makes me look good by association. :D
Every time I get a letter from a relative still stuck in Cuba or visit with one who has recently immigrated I think exactly what you just said... just not so well expressed.
Tonight I'll raise a glass to all the dreams of the people who have come to these shores. I will salute all of those who have and continue to work every day to build the nation we call home. Lastly, I will drink to those who have fallen defending it.
God bless America.
 
My entire family immigrated to the USA in the early 1960's. I was born here but we went back for a short time, my dad realized why he left the first time and then we returned to the good ole USA. I was able to experience being a subject of a dictatorship firsthand, it was the kind of country where "they" came and took a family member in middle of the night and they were never seen nor heard from again (as a side note, guns were illegal). I know the absolute fear of a government and the terror that you feel when you have contact with its "agents". I know how VERY lucky I am, a simple decision would have definately made my life very different today. My experiences as a child and stories from my relatives have shaped the person I am today and how I do my job as an LEO.

There is no other country like ours. I can't think of anywhere else I would want to live.
 
We can say the same about people like you.You are the kind of people we need here and get too few of.You are giving as much as you are recieveing.I will say welcome too.

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Bob--- Age and deceit will overcome youth and speed.
I'm old and deceitful.
 
Oleg, thanks for reminding us "native born" americans just how fortunate we are. I hope you remain an active participant in our freedom here- on this board and elsewhere.
My mind was opened some years ago by an old lithuanian fellow. He was a cook in a deer hunting camp. I listened to his story of how he fought for his freedom. First Stalin then Hitler. Fought in the underground and was an effective opponent. He had a price on his head and was eventually captured and then ordered executed by Himmler himself because he made eye contact with the monster. Waiting to be shot as an example to others, when an allied bomb destroyed the prison where he was. He pushed blocks of stone out of the damaged wall and walked out. went back to fighting until the allies marched down the street.
Welcome, from my heart.
 
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