Dear Client: Don't Give Up On Us!

Dear Client:

It feels like United States is being torn apart! Outrage over the death of George Floyd has even spread throughout the world. TV gives us riots, looting, warring political parties, and Presidential hostility to immigration. So why would you want to come here anyway?

Violence in America is nothing new. I am old enough to remember the riots in the 1960’s, after the death of Robert Kennedy and Matin Luther King Jr.  Did you know that, in 1970, the National Guard shot four college students dead at Kent State University in Ohio? Domestic terrorism? We’ve had that too. We survived the Black Panthers and the Puerto Rican separatist FALN. Let’s not forget the Unabomber, and Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people when he blew up a Federal Building in Oklahoma City. We survived imported terrorism, too, of course. 

The article at https://www.qchron.com/editions/north/st-francis-prep-finds-solace-after-world-trade-center-losses/article_1758034a-d42f-547a-ae9c-efb09f2d4571.html discusses the 16 students from my very own secondary school, St. Francis Prep, who died on 9/11. Two were friends of mine.

I moved away, but I am still a New Yorker. My mother was an immigrant from Ireland, and my New York born father’s parents escaped Stalin and the devastation of the First World War. It is a typical story for New York. In the 1970’s, from the window of my little bedroom, I watched them build the World Trade Center. My parents watched the towers collapse from the same window on 9/11. As a retired New York City firefighter, my father clearly felt a brotherhood with the 343 firefighters killed that day. 

Several days after the 9/11 attacks, I went “home” to visit my parents. My father - 77 years old, and shriveled somewhat through age - had tailored his dress uniform so he could attend the funerals of fallen firefighters. I was surprised to find a collection of books on Islam in the house. My father explained that, the very day after the attack, he went to the local mosque and asked if they would teach him about Islam. For three days he learned and prayed. He never adopted Islam, but, like a true American patriot, his heart and mind was open. And like true American patriots, the muslims in the mosque welcomed his curiosity.

Racism and violence are an unfortunate by-product of a diverse and free society that celebrates its liberty. But I assure you, the United States will survive. Have faith that, by the time your Green Card is issued, we will have survived this and moved onto some other equally vexing problem that only you can help us solve. 

In its heart, this is a welcoming country. You might get spat at, figuratively, and maybe, like my Irish-born mother, literally (that’s another story). But there is an old white guy here somewhere that is curious about you. Eventually, you will be one of us, and you will have the freedom to go out and protest, too. And please do. We need your help.

Sincerely,

Steve Pazan - EB5 Consultant and Lawyer