These times have challenged me and many others to consider what it means to be a patriot. I believe that every refugee child we help is an affirmation of the real America, an imperfect place and a divided place, but a country born out of values that promised to change the world for the better.
Today, I am presenting a tax-deductible way to vote for the America we know and love and wish to save and keep great. And change the life of a very gifted child.
One of those stunning American ideas was our commitment to welcome the broken and hopeless and downtrodden of the world.
We have not always treated our own people equally or well, we have our own bloody and wrenching history to contend with and acknowledge, but these ideas of freedom and compassion are powerful and have echoed through the ages.
My grandmother saw the true spirit of America and walked thousands of miles to get her, she did it so that my mother and my brother and sister and I could live freely and escape the horrors she knew and saw.
That dream is under great assault by a country that has turned partly harsh and selfish and unforgiving. But the dream lives in children like Eh K Pru Shee Wah.
Her father repairs broken windows in Albany, he was a farmer in Myanmar. It is right that she is a woman, she is witnessing another great surge of liberation.
America has so far kept its promise to her, as it has to me, and I hope to keep my promise to Eh K Pru as well. Her parents did the same for her as my grandmother did for me. She was the point, she is why they are.
Even though she spent the first ten years of her life in a refugee camp, Eh K Pru emerged intact, full of hope and generosity, and without bitterness or complaint. She wants to be the first person in her family to run a successful business.
A lot of people worked very hard for a long time – I am one of them – to bring her to the attention of one of the best private schools in the Northeast – the Albany Academy.
She loved them and they loved her and thanks mostly to her beloved teacher Kathy Saso, she has been admitted and given the largest scholarship the school offers – $21,000.
I have undertaken to help raise the rest of the money she needs – $6,000 a year for three years, a total of $18,000. I’m approaching it one year at a time. One donation for $1,000 arrived first thing Thursday, and I have received two pledges for “substantial” donations coming in next week. You can contribute here.
She needs $6,000 to enroll this Fall in the school, and I am hoping to put a chunk in the $18,000 total she needs to ensure her security for the next four years. Payment for the final year has been taken care of.
Please consider donating to this very worthy cause. To show that we care for our new citizens and welcome them, and offer our hearts and souls and resources to them.
I am happy to say that the Albany Academy is a non-profit, your gifts are tax-deductible, something I can’t offer. I’ve seen enough of non-profits, I don’t wish to be one.
If you are sending small amounts or prefer sending your contribution to me, you can do so via PayPal, [email protected], or Jon Katz, Eh K Pru, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
Please consider donating to Eh K Pru’s education fund. It will change her life, it has changed my life, I believe it will change yours. It will also keep that flame on Ellis Island burning.
This, I think, is important. It’s not just about her. It’s about us.
And thanks.