{"id":6131,"date":"2015-11-25T07:33:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T12:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=6131"},"modified":"2015-11-30T15:49:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T20:49:55","slug":"are-we-in-the-country-they-call-america-or-do-we-still-have-to-keep-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/11\/25\/are-we-in-the-country-they-call-america-or-do-we-still-have-to-keep-going\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Are we in the country they call America or do we still have to keep going?’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hungarian <\/a>
Hungarian refugee Anna Kovacs with a Gimbels Christmas doll, 1956. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Krasniqi family, refugees arriving from Ft. Dix, are greeted by Catholic Charities at Pittsburgh International Airport. At left is Enis, 17, Zejnepe, his mother, Fahrje, grandmother, and Bekim, 12. (Post-Gazette, 1999) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sudanese <\/a>
Sudanese refugees William Mayom (right) experiences the moving sidewalk for the first time , along with and Angelo Apiel (center) and Angelo Bol at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The boys are members of the Dinka tribe who escaped from Sudan and for years lived in a Kenyan refugee camp (Martha Rial\/Post-Gazette, 2001) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Liberian <\/a>
Liberian refugee Elizabeth Johnson talks about her determination to survive while escaping the civil war in Liberia with her children and of their struggles as refugees in Ghana. Johnson and her seven children, two adopted sons and mother came to Pittsburgh in May with the help of Catholic Charities. (Martha Rial\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Seen <\/a>
Seen through a bus window, an Albanian man weeps with a child in his arms as the first bus of refugees arrives at the Petrovec Airport for a flight out of Macedonia, Monday, April 5, 1999. A massive airlift is planned to transport refugees to NATO member-states who have agreed to temporarily take in some refugees to ease the pressure on Yugoslavia’s neighbors. (AP Photo\/Eric Draper) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Adila <\/a>
Adila Grcic (mother) holds her baby, Mirza Grcic during his one month check-up at the pediatric clinic at Mercy Hospital. She is a Bosnian refugee who came to Pittsburgh just five months before this moment was captured. On the left is Dr. Alicia J. Hartung, D.O. and on the right is Danesa Elezovic who is translating Bosnian into english during the check-up. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Adila <\/a>
Adila Grcic (mother-center) comforts her baby, Mirza Grcic during his one month check-up at the pediatric clinic at Mercy Health Center. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

That Facebook comment was no surprise. It had lots of clones last week, all in reaction to the pledge from Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto<\/a> to welcome Syrian refugees to Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemove the Governor and the Mayor now, before they welcome terrorists to our front doors\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Similar comments followed: \u201cWe don\u2019t need ISIS in our communities. Sign the petition \u201cPittsburghers against the Settlement of Syrian refugees in our City.\u201d What\u2019s wrong with these politicians, did they forget about the Twin Towers?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The sentiment echoed what people felt in the 1980s when humanitarian organizations were looking for a Cuban settlement in Pennsylvania. The animosity towards those \u201ccommies\u201d and \u201cCastro lovers\u201d was less pronounced though, maybe because the outlets for streams of consciousness were limited. But it was there. German refugees were \u201cdisplacing American jobholders in the 1940s.\u201d Vietnamese refugees \u201cruined\u201d the culture. Bosnian refugees were \u201cdirty Moslems\u201d. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

Yet the digital archive of stories of and about Pittsburgh refugees reveals a more mundane and nuanced narrative in the coverage of refugees\u00a0\u2014\u00a0stories about community events, birth announcements, businesses, fashion, food, moments of loss and sorrow, human interest stories:<\/p>\n

He came from Poland as a refugee, changed his name to a more Anglicized spelling, married a Polish girl, worked at a local bakery, they had three kids, people loved them.<\/p>\n

They came from all areas \u2014\u00a0Kosovo, Nepal, Hungary, Haiti, Sudan, Cuba. And for different reasons.\u00a0They settled throughout Pittsburgh\u00a0\u2014 \u00a0Squirrel Hill, Duquesne, Bloomfield, North Hills, Lawrenceville, Highland Park, Carrick. They ran away not from good lives, but from war and oppressive regimes, driven by fear. They left behind families and friends, and in many cases, homes destroyed by bombings. They sought refuge and Pittsburgh gave them shelter and hope.<\/p>\n

For decades Pittsburghers have been opening their homes and sponsoring refugees\u2019 entry to the U.S., helping these families acclimate to the new reality, overcome language barriers, start over. This charitable generosity comes up again and again on the pages of the Post-Gazette.<\/p>\n

Why? John Szarka, who helped refugees to adjust in the 1950s, captures the motivation for this kind of charitable work thusly, \u201cI am not a rich man in wealth but it makes my heart rich that I can help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, here is an inspiration from the past\u2026 in time for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Back in the day, during holidays Pittsburgh stores, including Gimbles department store, had a tradition of making the holiday season special for the newcomers to Pittsburgh by giving them presents. One of the lucky ones, a 6-year-old Nemeth, a son of Hungarian refugees, upon receiving a gift in 1956 asked, \u201cAre we in the country they call America or do we still have to keep going?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Pittsburghers are asking the same question rereading those\u00a0Facebook threads<\/a>: Are we in the country they call America?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They ran away not from a good life, but from war, from oppressive regimes, driven by fear more powerful than the fear of the known\u2026<\/p>\n

Look at the pictures‘Are we in the country they call America or do we still have to keep going?’<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1066],"tags":[961,1250],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/61400K91.jpg?fit=2210%2C2167&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8124,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/08\/02\/the-pittsburgh-post-gazette-celebrates-90-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":6131,"position":0},"title":"The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Celebrates 90 Years","date":"August 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Though we\u2019ve still got some spring in our step, we can\u2019t lie: the Post-Gazette is a bit long in the tooth. 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