HERITAGE

I just attended a family reunion of my wife's family, a wonderful and joyful experience, which started me thinking about my heritage and heritages in general.  All of us are descendants of immigrants, even the American Indian, and I wondered what all of our lives would have been like if our ancestors had stayed in their homeland.

In my case, my real name would probably have been Giovanni, I'd speak Italian, I would have been in the Italian army during the WWII and if I had survived, married an Italian girl and none of my children and grandchildren would be here. A trip across the ocean changed who I am.

I found my thoughts whirling in circles with "what if's" when contemplating the effects of immigration and how it changes everything about us and who we are.  I thought even about the African slaves who were forcefully brought to our land and subjected to unspeakable wrongs.  But in the end, I wonder, without the slave trade, today's African-Americans would have remained in Africa under primitive conditions but more or less, free.   While European whites and some Asians left "advanced countries", Africans lived in tribal conditions.  What has happened in Africa's history since makes it seem that the descendants of slaves may have, in the end, been lucky as we were.