Happy To Be Free

Irene the manicurist told me that when she was a little girl in Russia it was common for people to disappear during the night never to be seen again.

Blanca, my El Salvadorian cleaning woman told me that as a young adult while she and her family were in the marketplace the insurrectionists drove in, took out machine guns and sprayed bullets into the crowd.

Irene told me that the minute communism collapsed she and her family fled.

Blanca told me that the minute she had the means to leave El Salvador she did.

And both of them told me that I had no idea how lucky I was to live in the United States. They both told me I had no idea what it was like not to be free.

And I told them both how happy I was not to know.