by Michael Hindin
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
One hundred years ago, my grandfathers walked across Europe to various ports, leaving our families in czarist Russia, with its terrible persecution of Jewish communities, to plant roots in the imperfect freedom of America.
They labored long hours in sweatshops in New York City, and pinched pennies to support and rescue our families from the horrors of Russia.
My grandmothers and their children endured persecutions, World War I, famine, the Bolshevik Revolution, the 1918 flu, and the trek across Europe to the bowels of a steamship. There was minimal communication in the seven to 11 years of separation.
Our Somali-American neighbors are living the same immigrant story, with the horrors endured by loved ones left behind. The same family values drive them to support parents and extended families in war-ravaged Somalia.
Tragically, the last remaining bank that facilitated funds transfers to Somalia has succumbed to fear of prosecution under current Homeland Security and banking laws, closing this life-saving pipeline to refugees and displaced persons.
We must urge our banks and regulatory agencies, via our elected officials, to create a safe means for Somali-Americans to support their relatives. This is a moral issue and, surprisingly, a means to project a positive image of America in East Africa.
MICHAEL HINDIN,
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
This letter was first published in Star Tribune