On this Independence Day, I give thanks to God that I live in this great country. I am so proud to be an American! Does that mean America is without faults? Of course not! It is not a Utopia. But no other country in the history of the world has given promise to so many people, liberated so many people with the lives and limbs of our soldiers, nor given so much financial aid. We are a generous people.
The motto "E Pluribus Unum" was first used on our coinage in 1795. Translated from Latin, it most closely means "Out of many, (is) One." or "From many, (comes) One." This country's population has grown through immigration. My mother, Mary Jensen Kalkwarf, came to America from Denmark in 1924 at the age of 7. She came across the Atlantic Ocean with her parents and four sibilings. My grandmother was pregnant at the time. Because my Uncle Henry came down with measles, the family had to spend two weeks on Ellis Island in New York City harbor. I have visited the Ellis Island museum and marveled at the idea of coming to a strange country with five children and a sixth one on the way! It must have been a long hard journey. And then to be separated from your husband for two weeks while you and the children are in quarantine. Denmark was going through rough times but five years after arriving in America, this country was in a Depression.
My mother once told me that she refused to speak Danish after they had settled in Humboldt, Iowa. She said she learned English by listening to others. She did not attend any ESL (English as a Second Language) classes nor were there any government sponsored programs to assist her in learning the language of America, as is the case today. My grandparents learned by this method also. How proud my mother must have been when she became a United States Citizen!
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