America's Table | Page 5

WHEN WE CAME TO AMERICA The insightful questions of our children, innocently asked, compel us to reconnect with our past. When our families came to America. How they got here. What they found. Why they came. At every table the answers are different, but much the same. Many of us were immigrants and refugees from all regions of the world, fleeing the afflictions of poverty, oppression and brutality. Drawn by the promise of a better life, we chose America and she took us into safe harbor. Not every journey was easy. The first arrivals sometimes shunned those who followed. Not every journey was voluntary. The first African slaves landed in Jamestown a year before the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth. Not every journey was righteous. Native Americans were devastated by a new nation’s need to conquer, cultivate, and build. Not every journey was smooth. Obstacles were placed in the paths of too many. 5