WHAT IS AMERICA TO ME? An Immigrant's Tribute to The People of America

By E.S. Dizon

This book is a view of America and its people as observed by an immigrant through a lifetime of assimilation. It traces the gradual change in his perception of Americans: from the hero worship of his youth gained from meeting American soldiers in WWII, and the influence of imported American pop culture, to that gained from actually coming to America and interacting with everyday Americans. He discovers that Americans don't all stand as tall as John Wayne, don't all sing like Frank Sinatra, don't all give speeches like John Kennedy, and the women don't all look, sing and dance like Debbie Reynolds. Instead he finds a people blessed with common virtues that they use to overcome adversities and improve their lives and that of their neighbors. These virtues are illustrated in each of the forty short stories in the book. The subjects represent a cross section of America and include children, students, teachers, workers, tradesmen, engineers, scientists, inventors, executives, athletes, soldiers, volunteers, religious, and even politicians. The stories are sometimes patriotic, or inspirational, or religious, or humorous, and many times, all of the above. The author hopes that the readers will identify with their fellow Americans in the book and even find a little bit of themselves in them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781644680650

Book preview

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What Is America

to Me?

An Immigrant’s Tribute to the People of America

E.S. Dizon

ISBN 978-1-64468-064-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-065-0 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 E.S. Dizon

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

To the memory of our daughter, Nini. She was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on July 29, 1968. She was a handicapped child who graced our lives with her sunshine for twenty-eight years. She passed away on Thanksgiving Day 1996. The eulogy delivered by her older sister is printed in the last segment of this book. It eloquently describes what Nini meant to us.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgment

Introduction

I.

The American Military

Duty, Courage, and Sacrifice

No Words Spoken, No Words Needed

The Greatest Generation

I Dream of a World as It Can Be and Ask Why Not

Historical and Personal Perspectives

II.

American-Style Education in the Philippines

Fill the World with Love

III.

Coming to America

Face-to-Face with a Linebacker

American Ingenuity

The Definition of Cool

Romance, the Universal Language

You Are One of Us Now

Highest-Priority Customer Service

Shocking Pink Sidewall Tires

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going

Yes, I Can

Look at the Birds of the Air

The House We Lived in Wayne P. - Master Carpenter

IV.

Living the American Dream

An Immigrant Managing Americans

You and Me Together

Uncovering Skill and Talent

Laughter Is the Shortest Distance Between Two People

There Are No Royals in America

Lean and Mean Organization

Applause from the Governor

If You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It

V.

From Engineer and Scientist to Business Analyst

Serving the Jump Seat Occupant

The Courage to Do What Is Right

Anticipate and Adjust

Be Curious, Not Judgmental

VI.

Drexel University

Athletics Is an Extracurricular Activity

I Will Overcome

Gratitude

VII.

The Insurance Industry

The Apprentice Teaching the Master

The Human Side of Business

Grace, Forgiveness, and Friendships Amid Job Loss

VIII.

Unless You Become Like Little Children

Innocent Altruism

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Pride and Resolve

The Special Olympics

IX.

Early Retirement

Volunteerism and Charitable Giving In America

Friendly Persuasion

Missionaries of the Poor

The Lovely Lady

A Thousand Reasons to Be Kind

To Err Is Human

X.

XI.

XII.

You Are My Sunshine

About the Author

¹ The Greatest Generation, title of Tom Brokaw book.

² —see the world as it can be and ask why not Cervantes and play Man From La Mancha.

³ Fill the World with Love. Song by Leslie Bricusse, sang by Petula Clark in the movie Goodbye Mr. Chips.

⁴ When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Attributed to coach Knute Rockne.

⁵ Yes, I can. Derived from Si, se puede. Motto of United Farm Workers, attributed to Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez.

⁶ Look at the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26–34).

⁷ From the song The House I Live in by Abel Meeropol and Earl Robinson.

⁸ American Dream. Attributed to 1931 historian, James Truslow Adams.

⁹ You and Me Together. Hannah Montana song, sung much later but the same sentiment.

¹⁰ Laughter is the shortest distance between two people (Comedian Victor Borge).

¹¹ Quote attributed to Yogi Berra.

¹² Be curious, not judgmental. Attributed to Walt Whitman.

¹³ I will overcome. Derived from Joan Baez song.

¹⁴ Matthew 18:3.

¹⁵ A mind is a terrible thing to waste. United Negro College Fund motto.

¹⁶ Friendly Persuasion. Movie based on novel by Jessamyn West (1945).

¹⁷ The Lovely Lady. Name of endearment applied to Sister Virginia by the men at St. John’s Hospice. It has no connection to the main character of the D. H. Lawrence book of the same name.

¹⁸ You Are My Sunshine. Song written by Jimmy Davis and Charles Mitchel. Popularized by Johnny Cash.

Preface

An immigrant coming to America does so with a set of preconceived notions about the country and its people. For Filipinos of my generation, these notions were developed from the experience of meeting American soldiers in World War II, exposure to American movies and pop culture in the 1950’s, and attending schools run by American missionaries to the Philippines.

The song God Bless America which was heard repeatedly over the airwaves in the Philippines at the time probably summarized what America was to me when I arrived in Detroit, Michigan in 1963. America was a large country bounded by two oceans, with beautiful mountains and prairies in between and a people that prayed for and loved their country.

The three assassinations, the war in Vietnam and the protests against it, and the 1968 race riots in Detroit were therefore a rude awakening from the paradise that I thought America would be.

Today, seven decades later, the simple words of God Bless America have been replaced for me by the impassioned lyrics of Katherine Lee Bates America the Beautiful where she wrote about nobleness, mending flaws, self-control, liberty in law, brotherhood and asking for God’s grace.

This book is a collection of short stories and anecdotes narrating my experiences and interactions with individuals from a cross section of the American population. From them, I have learned what is an American and what it takes to be one.

I have identified the individuals by name if I have their family’s permission to do so and/or the individual is already deceased. Otherwise, I used their first name or their title.

This book is their story and my tribute to them.

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to express his deep appreciation to the individuals who are the subject of the stories in this book. They shared a small part of their lives with me, and over time, those individual encounters added up to a profound understanding of what America is all about. They imprinted a little bit of themselves into me, and they are now a part of my being. My hope is that in some ways, I have also impacted their lives for the better. An even greater hope is that I can do the same for the people that I still have to meet.

A special thanks also to my wife who endured the telling and retelling of these stories before and during the writing of this book. And to my children, their wives and husbands, and grandchildren who were honest and brave enough to critique the early stages of the book, thereby changing and improving it to its present form.

Thanks also to Maurice Naylon IV (Chipp), the grandnephew of ensign Naylon, for his advice and encouragement in the writing of the book and to my friend, Jack Schrems, for agreeing to review the first manuscript.

Introduction

An immigrant coming to America today can see two views of the country and its citizens: one from watching the morning or evening news on television, the other by going to the Italian Market in Philadelphia very early in the morning.

The news is presented in sound bites over a thirty-minute period. Of necessity, the news editors must choose what is newsworthy to their viewers. These would include personalities, events, conflicts, and, many times, celebrities who have done something or are involved in something that is of great interest to the public. Oftentimes, the big news of today will disappear the next day. Some subjects stay on for a few days, sometimes weeks. This is the nature of the news.

The picture from the Italian Market requires a slower and more deliberate observation to understand what is happening. And it is the same every day. Starting at 6:00 a.m., the shops begin to open their doors. The shopkeepers, the butchers, the bakers, the fishmongers, and their assistants begin to troop in. The activity increases, slowly at first, rising to a crescendo that explodes into a frenzy at 7:00 a.m. when the first customers begin to arrive. Then the noise level rises to a pitch, with English, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, and a sprinkling of other languages all mixed into a cacophony of voices. Once in a while, a joke is told followed by loud laughter. Business is conducted individually, joyfully, and efficiently.

A block away, parents are walking their young children to nearby schools. Men and women, some in office attire, others wearing hard hats, others in doctors or nurses’ uniforms, are walking to bus stops, most with a cup of coffee in hand. A short distance away, the bells from a church start ringing, and older people walk in to attend the morning service. These are the people of America. Their day has begun.

The people represented in the Italian Market never make it to the news and don’t have time to watch it. There are 327 million of them. Together, they impact the longer-term direction of America. They elect our leaders, they operate our factories, our farms, our hospitals, and, when called upon, they fight our wars.

If there is one characteristic that is common to all of them, it is their fierce individualism. The genius of America is that in spite of this, they manage to function together to move the country forward. They accomplish this through wars, dramatic changes in the body politics, depressions, recessions, floods, hurricanes, and other catastrophes.

Americans are like the members of a symphony orchestra, each playing a different instrument, each instrument with a different sound, each playing a different note at a different beat, some playing softly, others loudly, but managing to come out with a unified and pleasant sound that is pleasing to the audience.

The song The House I Live In beautifully sung by Frank Sinatra begins by asking the question: What is America to me? This immigrant attempts to answer this question from the viewpoint of a spectator, at first looking in from the outside and then gradually joining in as a bit player and finally to a full-time participant.

This book is about my personal interactions with Americans that I have