In a world with increasing Islamaphobia, Muslims are continuing to take the high road and contribute to the United States in the most wonderful ways.
In San Bernardino, California, 500,000 people do not have health insurance. In the year 2000, the Al Shifa clinic opened in a largely latino community known as Muscoy. It was opened by a group of Muslim friends, with the goal of reducing the burden on emergency rooms, and therefore reducing the cost of health care for EVERYONE! (When someone receives treatment in an ER, and then can't pay their bills, the cost for everyone else - insured or otherwise - goes up to cover that deficit. Al Shifa treating over 200 patient a month, using only volunteer doctors and donated supplies and equipment, helps to ease that burden in San Bernardino.)
So - the Al Shifa clinic is a clinic run by Muslims - that provides absolutely FREE health care to those who walk in - regardless of their race, religion, or nationality. Because they are in a primarily latino community, most of their doctors are bilingual, and they have staff who can translate for the doctors. They provide health care in: dental, primary care, internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonary, neurology, women's health, pediatrics, chiropractic, psychiatry, and gynecology. The doctors, physicians, and other members of the medical staff take days off of their paying medical jobs to volunteer at Al-Shifa. In an interview with California Healthline, an Al Shifa doctor named Makbul Patel said, "God gave me this skill. I feel I need to use it. There is a severe, urgent need in this neighborhood." Al Shifa also created a mobile clinic/van for those who cannot travel themselves to the building. Al Shifa means "Healing Path," and these doctors are truly giving the community a healing path.
The best way to learn about Al Shifa is to visit their website and watch their videos. Be careful, it may melt your heart.
Religious freedom makes America great. Our diversity makes America great. Our ability to overcome terrible adversity makes America great. This Muslim community - makes America great!
Click link and learn more about the Green Book. The Green Book helped keep 'negro motorists' safe between 1936-1966 as they faced racial intolerance - from places that would be willing to actually sell them to gasoline to safe restaurants and hotels to stay at. A great read for anyone who takes their ability to hop in a car and trace for granted.
Donald Trump said, "When Mexico sends its people. they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Well, if you happened to have a metastatic brain tumor, you've be very thankful that in 1987, a 19 year old boy named Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa illegally crossed the U.S. - Mexico in hopes of a better life.
His family had owned a gas station, but they had to sell it when the Mexican economy tanked. Instead of nutritious meals, they lives off of flour tortillas and salsa. When he was 14, he paid a brief visit to an uncle in the United States, and made hard-earned cash pulling weeds. In an interview with CNN, Quinone-Hinojosa said, "That hard earned cash proved that people like me were not helpless or powerless." After returning to Mexico and poverty, Quinones-Hinojosa decided he wanted to be back in the U.S. where he could earn money and feed his family. He decided to Spider-Man climb the 18 foot tall fence at the border. On his first attempt, he got over the wall and was caught by the U.S. officials. An hour later, Quinones-Hinojosa tried again, and tried faster, and was successful. His uncle helped Alfredo get work.
When Alfredo first entered the US, he was virtually penniless. (He has $65 in his pocket.) He spoke no English. He took the only job he could find, a job once given to the slaves of the 19th century, he picked cotton in a cotton field. As he looked at his bloody hands, scarred from pulling weeds, he knew he was laying the foundation for his future. He was going to pay for his tuition at San Joaquin Delta Community College. From his most unlikely of roots, and with the urging and assistance of friends, he managed to transfer to UC Berkeley, where he graduated with highest honors with a degree in psychology. He definitely felt the weight of being an outsider, and the need to hide his heritage. Once, a fellow student told him, you can't be Mexican, you're too smart to be Mexican. He continued to work hard and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he once again, graduated with honors. It was during his time at Harvard, he was granted U.S. citizenship. He completed his residecny at University of California, San Francisco and a post doctoral fellowship in developmental and stem cell biology at the laboratory of Professor Arturo Alvarez-Buylla - a fellow Mexican. In 2005, he arrived at Johns Hopkins, becoming a faculty members and a surgeon.
At Johns Hopkins, he became known as Dr. Q. Dr. Q has become one of the best neurosurgeons in the world. Today, Quinones-Hinojosa operates on over 250 brain tumors a year. He is working on a method to use human fat cells to fight brain cancer. According to his official website, "he believes that there are natural stem cells in the brain that, if put in just the right spot, could halt the spread of cancerous cells in the brain, working more effectively naturally than any surgery or radiation treatment currently in use. There is still a lot of work to be done, but Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa looks forward to a day when he no longer has to feel like he is entering the brain illegally, and cancer becomes an illness no more troublesome than the common cold." He makes all of his patients feel confident and loved. He once told one of his patients, "No matter what happens in the rest of the world, I will not leave you, you are my concern." That patient survived and now organizes fundraisers for Quinones-Hinojosa's research. She is just one example of the hundreds if not thousands of lives Quinones-Hinojosa has saved over the years. He also has created an online community and support group for his patients over the years, and his team regularly runs in races raising money for cancer research.
In the interview with CNN, Dr. Q as he is more frequently called, said, "The American dream doesn't mean you have a big house or a fancy car. That's not the American dream for me. The American dream is the ability to give back when you are so privileged to be able to do what I do. It's: How do you figure how to give back at least a little bit? That to me is the American Dream."
This man is actually probably one of Mexico's best, and the United States' best, and the world's best. He truly makes America great as a surgeon, a teacher, and a good samaritan.
When people hear the name Josephine Baker, if they KNOW the name Josephine Baker, they think of this:
Yup - she was a girl who did a fun and flirty dance in a banana skirt. She was one of the greatest stars of the vaudeville stage, especially in Europe, and she was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture - a French film called Zouzou.
And while Josephine Baker was the toast of Europe, what she should perhaps be best remembered for is her contribution to the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
She was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born to two performer parents, but her vaudeville drummer father abandoned the family shortly after Josephine was born. Growing up, Josephine Baker witnesses racism all around her. She experienced it in her own treatment working as a cleaning lady and a nanny, in her hometown, she also witnessed the race riots of 1917. I personally feel many history books forget about, but it was a big deal! Read about it here.
Josephine did get work as a performer in the United States, even bringing her own special comedic touch to the original Shuffle Along. However, the color of her skin limited her opportunities and audiences in the United States were racially segregated. As soon as Josephine was old enough, she left the intolerant United States, and move to France where racial integration and diversity was welcomed and celebrated in the the arts community.
In France, Josephine Baker became one of the most popular and highest paid performers in all of Europe. She had admirers ranging from e e cummings to Pablo Picasso. She was hailed as the "Black Venus" or the "Black Pearl." It was the high of the jazz age, and the French couldn't get enough of this quirky American chorus girl, especially after they saw her dance around in a skirt made of nothing but 16 bananas at the Folies Bergere Music Hall in 1926.
She was the toast of the town and life may have seemed as bubbly as a glass of champagne. In 1936, she decided to ride this wave of success but to the United States, hoping to receive a warm welcome, but instead was greeted with hostility, fear, and racism. As so many blacks who experienced success outside of the continental United States had realized before and would realize after, many Americans had hardened their hards towards the black community and, while happy to applaud for them on a stage, wouldn't sit next to them on a bus. Disheartened, Josephine quickly took her million dollar smile that could light up a room back to France.
And then World War II broke out. Like Bob Hope, Jospehine Baker would entertain troops abroad wearing little more than her dazzling smile. Josphone Baker also went further. She joined the French Resistance! Because she was a performer, she could move around countries easily. She would carry information form France to England about various harbours, airfields, and German troop occupation in France. She smuggled notes written in invisible ink on her sheet music and in her (I can only imagine very bedazzled) underwear! She helped the allied forces win the war in very brave and very creative fashion! So important were her actions that the French government awarded her the Croix de Guerre, Rosette de La Resistance, and Charles de Gaulle made her a Chevalier de La Region de L'honneur.
Needless to say her wartime heroices made her an even BIGGER and more respectable star in France, and the United States invited her to perform for her native crowd. However, when she arrived in the United States, she found little progress had been made in the Civil Rights movement. This war hero and star of the stage and screen was denied hotel reservations in 36 hotels because of the color of her skin! The Stork Club in Manhattan refused her service. She discovered that the audiences she was to perform for were segregated. She flat out refused to perform for segregated audience. It became a clause in her contract. One club in Miami even offered her $10000 to perform for an all white audience and she refused. The demand for her performances and her stubborn refusal to perform for an all white audience, forced nightclubs to open their doors to all colors, including the Miami club, taking a small step to the end of segregation in the United States. This was probably much braver than it seems in retrospect today. She actually received threatening calls from KKK members, which she proclaimed did not frighten her. (She had served in the French resistance - she had faced the Nazis - she could face the KKK!) She became active active in the NAACP. She was so influential, she was actually asked to take over the leadership position after Martin Luther King, Jr's death. This was an honor she refused, because she felt her children were too young to be put in danger of losing their mother.
Speaking her children, when in this story did she have time to be pregnant? She never had a biological child of her own. Instead she created a beautiful family she called The Rainbow Tribe. It consisted of 12 adopted children, from 12 different countries, who were 12 different colors. She wanted to prove that children of "different ethnicities and different religions" could be brothers. This actually became the model for celebrities like Angelina Jolie. At the time, racial integration was more rare, mixed race marriages much more scandalous, and blacks weren't even allowed to use the same bathroom as whites. Have children adopted from Finland to Japan to Venezeula definitely made a statement.
Josephine eventually moved back to France where she passed away at the age of 68. She got to see quite a bit of change in the world, and helped the US take a giant leap forward in terms of accepting people of colors. She was someone who made America great, but sadly, was treated so poorly by many Americans, she simply ended up representing America in grand fashion Europe. This one quirky black American showgirl in France once helped bring down Hitler, stood up to and helped change the racist mindset of her home country, and showed the world that children of all different ethnicities and religions can truly be brothers. Let's continue to make America great for people like Josephine Baker!
In 1893, Jewish immigrant Israel Isidore Baline, arrived on the US soil for the first time. He was fleeing the pogroms in Russia. He was processed on Ellis Island and moved to Manhattan. When he was 13 his father died. Israel took to the streets as a news boy. He sorta sucked as a news boy. He made virtually no money, felt ashamed and embarassed so he left home to try and make it on his own. He was essentially a homeless boy on the bowery. He had no education. He had no schooling. The only skill he had he learned from his late father, who had been a cantor. So Israel took to the streets singing popular ballads of the day. He was good, so people hurled pennies at him. He was so good, he began singing in music halls in Union Square. He was also observant and learned what songs really got people jamming. (Popular melodies that expressed sweet simple sentiments.) After the bar closed at night, he taught himself to play piano. He then began writing songs. He sold his first song for 37 cents. The name he signed on it was I. Berlin.
In 1911, I. Berlin wrote a song that was SOOOOO catchy, some less "fun" people claimed it was a public menace that caused hysteria, insanity, and idiocy in those who listened to it. This song was I. Berlin's first hit. Alexander's Ragtime Band. His friends form the Bowery came to watch him perform at Oscar Hammerstein's Vaudeville theatre and started crying tears of happiness that "their boy" made it and was living the American dream. I. Berlin would go on to write many more extremely popular songs that basically became part of the fabric of Americana. For example, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, the scores to Top Hat, Putting on the Ritz, Holiday Inn, Easter Parade, and musicals like Annie Get Your Gun.
When World War I came around, he enlisted. He stated, "We must speak with the sword not with the pen to show our appreciation for America for opening up her heart and welcoming every immigrant group. Let's all be Americans now." (He was a little disappointed that all they really wanted him for in the army was to write snappy tunes. But his snappy tunes of patriotism included titltes such as "God Bless America."
When I. Berlin died at the age of 101, Walter Kronkite said, "Other nations are defined by their classical composers. America is appropriately defined by this Russian immigrant. Germany has Beethoven, France Ravel, Poland Chopin, Italy Verdi, America has IRVING BERLIN."
On March 30th, 1908 - a 5 year old boy named Leslie Townes Hope was processed on Ellis Island. He has arrived upon the SS Philadelphia from Bristol, England. The ship had fought in the Spanish American War and would again fight in World War I, but for now it was a Transatlantic ocean liner transporting immigrants to the United States of America. The building on Ellis Island was only eight years old, and one can only imagine was a poor boy Bristol might have thought of it. His stay in New York was brief, as he and his quickly journeyed from Ellis Island to settle in Cleveland, Ohio.
As was the case for many immigrant families in the early 20th century, money was so scarce that every single family member had to work to put food on the table. The Hopes had 7 growing boys to feed! At age 12, Leslie took to busking in the streets. He was talented and people enjoyed watching him. He even won a Charlie Chaplin impersonation contest! At age 16, he tried his hand as a boxer. His boxing name was Packy East. He won three of four matches, but that was as far as his boxing career went. He worked briefly in a variety of jobs ranging from a butcher shop, to shoe salesman, to soda jerk.
Leslie's mother was an aspiring opera singer and encouraged his showbiz tendencies. Despite financial struggles, he enrolled in dance lesson with his girlfriend. The showbiz bug bit him hard and Leslie went off to perform on the Vaudeville circuit. He had an act called the Dancemedians - that say him teamed up with George Byrne, the Hilton twins, and his friend from dance school - Lloyd Durban!
In 1929, Leslie informally changed his name to Bob. Bob Hope. It become evident Bob was funniest on his own, so he went solo. He performed with the Zeigfeld Follies in 1936 and in the Broadway hit Red, Hot, and Blue with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante.
In 1934, his voice was first head on the radio. In 1938, the Pepsodent Show starring Bob Hope began. Any good performer knows he needs good collaborators, so he hired eight writer while he paid of of pocket!!!! And he paid them well! $2500 a week! He has a success television career and movie career, often teaming up with Bing Crosby, to enter Ian the masses. His genius is preserved in movies like 'The Road to Singapore,' numerous television specials, commercials, and in even the Simpsons where he played himself in season 4's 'Lisa the Beauty Queen.' But the biggest impact he made on his audiences was the one he made on our armed forces overseas.
On February 4, 1941, the United Service Organizations - AKA USO - formed with a focus of strengthening America's military service members by keeping them connected to family, hone, and country, throughout their service to their nation. Hundreds of entertainers ranging from Abbott and Costello to Tallulah Bankhead to Marlene Dietrich, to Duke Ellington, to the Rockettes, to to Dinah to Shore, to Ed Sullivan took part in Camp Shows overseas for American troops, but Bob Hope's enthusiasm and efforts surpassed all the rest.
Bob Hope spent 48 Christmases overseas with American service personnel throughout his life. His first USO appearance was in 1941 and his final was fifty years later in 1991. He was willing to entertain wherever and whenever the US needed him. After World War II was over, the USO was largely forgotten about, and the U.S. Government sent out an impassioned plea asking entertainers to not abandon the GI's now that the war was over. Among the first to say yes - Bob Hope. So ingrained in the consciousness of the US military was Bob Hope that he was declared the first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces. A C-17 Air Force Plane was named in his honor - The Spirit of Bob Hope. The navy followed suit naming one of their vessels the "USNS Bob Hope." And if you think Bob Hope got these honors easily, take into account that the Nazis thrice bombed towns while Bob Hope was there, and Bob Hope and his crew would travel over 300 miles in a jeep to perform and bring joy and laughter to troops who needed uplifting. He was such a target that, during the Vietnam War, the Vietcong targeted Bob Hope at his hotel and missed him by a mete 10 minutes. He wrote five books. The fifth was called, "The Last Christmas Show" which was dedicated to "the men and women of the armed forces and to those who also served by worrying and waiting." Bob Hope, and immigrant from England, in many ways carried the spirits of the US military on his back. He took his holidays and gave them to American Troops - bringing them joy and laughter.
Bob Hope was an immigrant.
Bob Hope made America Great.
You can learn more about Bob Hope and his life by watching this documentary.
In an attempt to keep the stories alive of people who made America great and make America great, I am starting this blog. There are so many immigrants and minorities who have conquered tremendous odds throughout our history and made our country great for the past 240 years, and they will CONTINUE to do so. My hope is that the stories I post here will promote love and understanding, open eyes, remind us of past struggles and how far we have come as a country and a society, and inspire people for the future. To quote Burt Bacharach - what the world needs now is love sweet love.
