Two Children of Immigrants. One Grateful. One Ungrateful.

Our leaders have told us we are a nation of immigrants.

Reagan, 1984, at Fudan University: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”

Bush, 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants.”

Obama, 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”

Hillary Clinton, 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws.”

Fine. I’m one of those immigrants.

So here’s what I watch for. Not where you came from. What you do once you’re here.

And on Thursday, October 8, 2026, two children of immigrants stood on two debate stages, in two states, on the same night.

Here’s what I see.

Michigan: “A ridiculous question.”

Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, debated Republican Mike Rogers at WOOD TV8 in Grand Rapids. [1][2]

El-Sayed was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and raised by his father, an Egyptian immigrant. University of Michigan. Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Medical degree from Columbia. [15][16]

Moderator Rick Albin asked him which country is the greater threat to the United States, Israel or Iran. [3]

El-Sayed: “I’m just going to say that that’s a ridiculous hypothetical.” [3]

Albin: “I’ll ask one last time. Israel or Iran?” [4]

El-Sayed: “That’s, again, a ridiculous question. I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way.” [3][4]

He also said Israel “has pushed us to go to war in Iran.” [3]

Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. [5] The Pentagon says Iran-backed militants killed at least 603 U.S. personnel in Iraq. [6]

He called the question ridiculous.

New York: plain answers.

Same night. NY1 and Spectrum News. Republican Saritha Komatireddy, running for New York Attorney General, debated incumbent Letitia James. [7][8]

Komatireddy was born in Brooklyn. In her own words: “My parents actually came to New York in the 1980s and settled down in Coney Island. It’s where they did their medical training at Coney Island Hospital.” Her family moved around the country; she grew up in Missouri and came back to New York to be a federal prosecutor. [9][10] Her parents are doctors who immigrated from Telangana, India. [11]

Harvard Law. Federal prosecutor in Brooklyn for more than a decade. Chief of staff at the DEA under President Biden. [12][10]

On antisemitism, she didn’t hedge. Of James: “This is the problem. She just stands there. She doesn’t do anything.” [7]

On Jewish students: James “has used it for other students but not for Jewish students who have been barricaded in libraries because of their race got no help from Tish James.” [7]

And when James was asked whether she supports a standard definition of antisemitism? “We are looking at the definition of antisemitism.” [8][13]

Looking.

Komatireddy’s campaign promise, in writing: “On Day One of my administration, I will declare a state of emergency over antisemitism.” [14]

On law and order: “I’m running for New York attorney general to make sure that New York is safe to prosecute crime, prosecute fraud, and take the homeless off the streets.” [12]

Now, honesty. Komatireddy was not asked Israel or Iran. Published coverage shows no Middle East question in that debate. [8] So I won’t put words in her mouth.

What I can judge is what each one did with the question in front of them.

One answered. One called it ridiculous.

It’s not about ancestry.

Both are children of immigrants. Both were born here. Both are accomplished: Oxford and Columbia medicine on one side, Harvard Law on the other.

So this isn’t about blood. We judge conduct.

One looked at America’s enemies and America’s friends and wouldn’t pick.

The other looked at Jewish New Yorkers being attacked and said: I will prosecute.

That’s the difference between gratitude and grievance.

If anyone has evidence that I’ve got either of them wrong, show me. I’ll look at it.

Coddling is as pernicious as laziness.

We’ve spent years telling newcomers and their kids they don’t have to choose. Keep the old grudges. Keep the old enemies. America will make room.

That’s coddling. And coddling rots a people the same way laziness does.

Gratitude is the opposite.

Gratitude is spine. It’s agency. America makes its own decisions; nobody “pushes” us. And a grateful citizen stands up and says so, out loud, even when it costs votes.

The Three A’s.

Accountability. Answer the question you were asked. El-Sayed didn’t. Komatireddy did.

Assimilation. Take on this country’s values. Equal protection means Jewish students get it too.

Allegiance. When someone asks who threatens America, you answer for America. First time.

That’s stewardship. We didn’t build this house. We inherited it. Our job is to guard it, for the ones who come after.

Same night. Two children of immigrants. Two answers.

You decide.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?

Spine, not knees.

LIVE GRATEFUL.

P.S. Update on our first Ungrateful: another American-born son of Turkish parents.

Hasan Piker was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Turkish parents. [18]

He streamed the Michigan debate live. Thursday night, October 8. [17]

That same night, Jon Ossoff debated Mike Collins for a Senate seat in Georgia. [20] Komatireddy debated Letitia James in New York. [8]

Of all the debates that night, Piker chose that one to livestream.

Piker doesn’t live in Michigan. He lives in Los Angeles. He bought a $2.74 million house there in 2021. He can’t vote in that race. [21]

My read: he wanted to showcase the most obvious ungrateful child of immigrants, and shove it in our faces, to keep the narrative going.

When El-Sayed called the Israel-or-Iran question “ridiculous” for the second time, here’s what Piker said at his screen:

“Say America, say Michigan. Say America, say Michigan.” [17]

El-Sayed didn’t.

A few moments later he added: “No, just say, just say, I don’t care about either of these countries. I care about America. I’m an American.” Then: “No, not America, the biggest threat. Just like, turn it back to like, I don’t care about either of those countries, I’m American. America number one.” [17]

Hasan Piker. The man who said America deserved 9/11. [19]

Here’s my read, and it’s mine.

He led with “Say America.” The question on the table was who the bigger threat is, and the first word out of his mouth is America. That’s what his audience hears: America is the threat.

Then he covered it. “No, not America, the biggest threat.” “America number one.” Fake patriotism, laid on after the message landed.

That’s the pattern with Piker. He knows what he wants his audience to hear. Then he obfuscates.

Don’t take my word for it. The clip is linked below. Watch it and judge for yourself.

And here’s the thing. It would have been an easy one.

“Iran is the bigger threat.”

That’s an answer. And it still leaves Israel as a threat, if that’s what he believes. People can parse it all day long.

If a follow-up came, his qualifiers about Israel’s actions would land with his voters. And his opponents would get it. They’d disagree, but they’d get it.

He couldn’t even do that.

That’s the whole question of stewardship in one night. Whose side are you on? If you can’t say Iran is the threat, then you’ve picked a side, and it’s not America.

If anyone has evidence I’ve read it wrong, show me.

Sources

WOOD TV8, full debate video, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.woodtv.com/video/michigan-u-s-senate-candidates-abdul-el-sayed-and-mike-rogers-debate-at-wood-tv8/12250853/
Detroit Free Press, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/10/08/abdul-el-sayed-mike-rogers-us-senate-debate/92162055007/
The Jerusalem Post, “El-Sayed says Israel, Iran have both proven ‘dangerous’ to US.” https://www.jpost.com/international/article-911134
JNS, “In Michigan Senate debate, El-Sayed won’t say Iran worse than Israel…” https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/in-michigan-senate-debate-el-sayed-declines-to-say-iran-worse-than-israel
National Archives, “444 Days: Selected Records Concerning the Iran Hostage Crisis 1979-1981.” https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/iran-hostage-crisis
Military Times, “Iran killed more US troops in Iraq than previously known, Pentagon says,” April 4, 2019. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/04/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says/
New York Post, Oct. 9, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/10/09/us-news/letitia-jamess-gop-opponent-for-attorney-general-saritha-komatireddy-trounces-in-fiery-ny-ag-debate/
VINnews, Oct. 9, 2026. https://vinnews.com/2026/10/09/komatireddy-challenges-letitia-james-on-crime-antisemitism-and-fraud-in-heated-debate/
Saritha Komatireddy, podcast interview, June 30, 2026 (transcript). https://exa.ai/library/podcast/bv66dz9l8z5/episode/x1s0ndr80sr
Hindustan Times, “Who is Saritha Komatireddy?” https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/who-is-saritha-komatireddy-all-about-her-family-net-worth-as-president-donald-trump-endorses-letitia-james-opponent-101786849190133.html
The Vetting Room, May 4, 2020. https://vettingroom.org/2020/05/04/saritha-komatireddy/
Spectrum News NY1, Aug. 5, 2026. https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2026/08/05/republican-saritha-komatireddy-lays-out-record-in-challenge-to-ag-letitia-james
Matzav.com, debate coverage, Oct. 2026. https://matzav.com/fiery-showdown-letitia-james-grilled-by-gop-challenger-over-antisemitism-crime-medicaid-fraud-and-trump-prosecutions/
Komatireddy campaign release, “Komatireddy pledges ‘state of emergency’ on antisemitism.” https://sarithafornewyork.com/komatireddy-pledges-state-of-emergency-on-antisemitism-vows-ag-takeover-of-prosecutions-where-district-attorneys-fail-to-protect-new-yorkers/
Bridge Michigan, “Who is Abdul El-Sayed?” https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/who-is-abdul-el-sayed-what-to-know-about-michigan-democrats-us-senate-winner/
El-Sayed campaign, About. https://abdulforsenate.com/about/
Hasan Piker’s livestream coverage of the Oct. 8 Michigan Senate debate, posted on X by @socialistadri, Oct. 8, 2026 (Israel-or-Iran segment at about 29:49–32:00; quotes at about 31:30–32:12). https://x.com/socialistadri/status/2108358316821024941
Wikipedia, “Hasan Piker” (born July 25, 1991, New Brunswick, N.J., to Turkish parents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasan_Piker ; IBTimes UK. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/who-hasan-piker-quick-facts-handsome-64-twitch-streamer-whos-been-accused-animal-cruelty-1747107
Washington Examiner, on Piker’s 2019 “America deserved 9/11” remark, which he has since walked back. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/entertainment/4756365/hasan-piker-says-far-less-damaging-9-11-comment-trump-iran-take-out-california/
Atlanta News First, “Sen. Jon Ossoff, Rep. Mike Collins meet in first Georgia Senate debate,” Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/10/08/live-tonight-sen-jon-ossoff-faces-rep-mike-collins-first-statewide-senate-debate/
Business Insider, “Hasan Piker faces criticism for buying a nearly $3 million home in Los Angeles County,” Aug. 23, 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/hasan-piker-house-twitch-streamer-criticized-los-angeles-2021-8

Dereliction of Duty

Why Doing So Gets Americans Killed

Our leaders have told us we are a nation of immigrants.

Reagan, 1984, at Fudan University: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”

Bush, 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants.”

Obama, 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”

Hillary Clinton, 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws.”

Well, I’m in that count. Legally.

The illegals I’m going to talk about here started on the wrong foot and deliberately stayed out of step.

The first duty.

A government’s first duty is the security of its citizens.

They were here illegally. They were caught for another crime. And instead of removing them and keeping citizens safe, cities like New York, and people like Zohran Mamdani, chose the criminals’ side over Americans.

The names everyone knows.

Kate Steinle, 32. Shot dead on a San Francisco pier, 2015, by Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal alien San Francisco had released months earlier. Acquitted of murder. [1][2]

Mollie Tibbetts, 20. Abducted and murdered in Iowa, 2018, by Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an illegal alien. Life without parole. [3]

Kayla Hamilton, 20. Murdered in Aberdeen, Maryland, 2022, by Walter Javier Martinez, an illegal alien and MS-13 member. 70 years. [4][5]

Rachel Morin, 37, mother of five. Raped and murdered on a Maryland trail, 2023, by Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal alien. Life without parole. [6][7]

Laken Riley, 22. Murdered in Athens, Georgia, 2024, by Jose Ibarra, an illegal alien the NYPD had arrested and released. Life without parole. [8][9]

Jocelyn Nungaray, 12. Strangled in Houston, 2024. Two illegal aliens, released at the border months earlier, are charged. [10]

Debrina Kawam, 57. Burned to death on a Brooklyn subway train, 2024. A deported illegal alien who came back is charged. [11][12]

Oscar Belgal. Illegal alien. Arrested by the NYPD in 2023, convicted of grand larceny, arrested again in 2025, and left on the street until ICE came for him in Marble Hill. [13][14]

Caught for another crime and let go, or let in and never removed. It’s a distinction without a difference.

The system had them or let them in. It didn’t remove them. Seven women and girls are dead. The eighth man was still on the street.

March 4, 2025.

President Trump stood before Congress and honored Laken Riley with her mother and sister in the gallery. [15]

I watched that speech. Every Republican stood and applauded. By my count, more than nine out of ten Democrats stayed in their seats. That’s what I saw. If you saw something different, the video is public. Show me.

They choose not to.

The city says cooperation scares people away from reporting crime. A man robbing and dealing isn’t calling 911 anyway.

The city says it needs a judge’s warrant. Its own law already allows a hold with one. [16] And the Supreme Court says Washington can’t force a city to help. It never said a city can’t. [17][18]

They’re allowed to hold them. They choose not to.

14,916 ICE detainers not honored in New York since January 2025. [13]

They know these names.

City Hall knows these names. It still hides behind “lawbreakers won’t report lawbreaking.”

Mamdani: “I am in support of abolishing ICE.” [19] “When it comes to our city, we are proud of our sanctuary city policies.” [20]

Here’s what I see.

They are not on America’s side. Not on Americans’ side. No matter how tightly they wrap themselves in the flag, no matter how they work the Constitution.

At the very least on this, they’re on the intruders’ side.

Intent doesn’t change the damage.

Nobody in City Hall swore an oath to weaken this country. I don’t need them to.

If you knowingly release a man you have in custody on a new crime, the result on the street is the same as if you had sworn that oath.

Same victims. Same funerals.

That’s dereliction of the first duty. Immigration doesn’t shrink that duty. It makes it bigger.

Coddling is as pernicious as laziness.

Releasing a man with a record because enforcing the law is uncomfortable is not compassion. It’s coddling. And coddling rots a city the same way laziness does.

Gratitude is spine. Agency. It says: this country is worth protecting, and I’ll do the hard part.

The Three A’s.

Accountability. A crime gets consequences. For everyone.

Assimilation. Come legally. Live by the law. That’s the deal I took.

Allegiance. A government’s allegiance runs to its citizens first.

That’s stewardship. You don’t get to give away the safety of the house you were trusted to guard.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?

Spine, not knees.

LIVE GRATEFUL.

Sources

Ninth Circuit, Steinle v. City and County of San Francisco (2019) (detainer sent March 27, 2015; released April 15, 2015). https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/03/25/17-16283.pdf
AP, “Jury acquits Mexican man in San Francisco pier killing,” Nov. 30, 2017. https://apnews.com/article/e586a1a9688d4287a3412b756a6b225d (Garcia Zarate was acquitted of murder and manslaughter.)
AP, “Man gets life sentence in 2018 killing of Mollie Tibbetts,” 2021. https://apnews.com/article/business-immigration-mollie-tibbetts-61b4beb398a50c20ec0f5cc29ffc0d2e
Harford County State’s Attorney, “Illegal immigrant & MS-13 gang member pleads guilty in brutal 2022 murder.” https://www.harfordcountystatesattorney.org/illegal-immigrant-ms-13-gang-member-pleads-guilty-in-brutal-2022-murder/
Fox Baltimore, “19-year-old illegal immigrant sentenced to 70 years for the murder of Kayla Hamilton.” https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/19-year-old-illegal-immigrant-sentenced-to-70-years-for-the-murder-of-kayla-hamilton (Sentence: life with all but 70 years suspended.)
Harford County State’s Attorney, “Maximum penalty imposed for brutal 2023 Ma-Pa Trail murder,” Aug. 11, 2025. https://www.harfordcountystatesattorney.org/maximum-penalty-imposed-for-brutal-2023-ma-pa-trail-murder/
AP, “Fugitive from El Salvador gets life in prison in woman’s killing on a Maryland hiking trail,” Aug. 2025. https://apnews.com/article/rachel-morin-killer-life-sentence-maryland-salvador-1fdadf5b38201d54ee7da75de1b823fe
CBS News, “Suspect in murder of Georgia nursing student entered U.S. illegally, ICE says,” Feb. 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jose-ibarra-suspect-murder-georgia-nursing-student-illegal-entry-venezuela/ (Ibarra’s NYPD arrest and release before a detainer are per ICE; NYPD said it had no record, later reported sealed.)
AP, “Man convicted of killing Laken Riley sentenced to life in prison,” Nov. 20, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/georgia-nursing-student-laken-riley-immigrant-d8d75ccc6d81e7a88eb7890829d9fc9c
CNN, June 26, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/us/jocelyn-nungaray-killing-houston ; FOX 26 Houston (ICE detainers, release at El Paso). https://www.fox26houston.com/news/venezuelan-nationals-face-capital-murder-charges-houston-girls-death-ice-confirms
NBC News, “Man charged in woman’s burning death on NYC subway was deported from U.S. in 2018.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-charged-womans-burning-death-nyc-subway-was-previously-deported-us-rcna185276 (Zapeta-Calil: entered illegally June 2018, deported June 7, 2018, re-entry date and place unknown, per ICE.)
Reuters, Jan. 7, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/legal/man-accused-killing-woman-new-york-subway-fire-pleads-not-guilty-2025-01-07/ (Charged; pleaded not guilty.)
DHS press release, Oct. 9, 2026. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/10/09/dhs-debunks-new-york-sanctuary-politicians-lies-about-ice-shooting-illegal-alien (DHS claims: in the country illegally, entry “at an unknown date and location,” released days after the Dec. 7, 2023 arrest; 14,916 detainers figure is DHS data.)
Mayor’s Office transcript, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on the Marble Hill shooting, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/10/transcript–mayor-mamdani-holds-press-conference-on-ice-shooting ; AP via PBS, Oct. 9, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ice-officer-shoots-a-man-while-making-an-arrest-in-new-york-officials-say (Belgal record per NYPD Commissioner Tisch; 2025 drug-sale charge pending, not guilty plea. A detainer for Belgal is claimed only by unnamed federal sources in the New York Post and is not confirmed.)
ABC11, joint address live coverage, March 4, 2025 (“received applause from Republicans in the chamber”). https://abc11.com/live-updates/trump-joint-session-of-congress-live-updates/15977198/entry/15978677
NYC Administrative Code §§ 9-131, 14-154 (detainer laws). https://www.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/nyc-detainer-laws.pdf
Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/521/898/
Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Assn., 584 U.S. 453 (2018). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/584/16-476/
ABC News, “Mayor Mamdani says he supports abolishing ICE.” https://abcnews.com/Politics/mayor-mamdani-supports-abolishing-ice-calls-humanity-dealing/story?id=129385475
MEAWW, June 2026 (Mamdani on MS NOW; February executive order). https://news.meaww.com/ice-should-be-abolished-zohran-mamdani-rejects-democratic-concerns-on-immigration

Iran or Israel? El-Sayed Couldn’t Say. I Know What He Didn’t Say.

Our leaders have told us, again and again, that we are a nation of immigrants.

Reagan said it in 1984, at Fudan University: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”

Bush said it in 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants.”

Obama said it in 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”

Clinton said it in 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws.”

Fine. I’m one of those immigrants.

So let me ask the question none of them ever had to ask out loud:

Immigrants to what?

Because Thursday night in Michigan, a man who wants to be a United States Senator got a simple question.

And he couldn’t answer it.

What was asked. What was said.

October 8, 2026. WOOD TV8 studio, Grand Rapids. Michigan U.S. Senate debate. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers. Moderator Rick Albin. [1][2][10][11]

The question: which country is the greater threat to the United States, Israel or Iran? [1][2]

El-Sayed: “And again, Rick, I’m just going to say that that’s a ridiculous hypothetical.” [1]

He talked about Israel lobbying us into war. About Iran “bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply.” [1][2]

“I don’t want to be pushed into war by Israel, and I don’t want to be in a war with Iran.” [1]

Albin pressed him: “I’ll ask one last time. Israel or Iran?” [3]

El-Sayed: “That’s, again, a ridiculous question. I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way. One, at risk of attacking us. One, getting us into wars we have no business fighting.” [1][3]

And then: “I don’t consider an ally a country that takes us to wars we don’t need to fight.” [1]

Three chances. Zero answers.

I know what he didn’t say.

I’m not a foreign-policy expert. I’m a grateful immigrant who reads the record.

Here’s the record on Iran.

November 4, 1979. Revolutionary Iranian students, backed by Khomeini’s government, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. 52 Americans were held until January 20, 1981. 444 days. [4]

October 23, 1983. Beirut. The Marine barracks bombing killed 241 American service members. [5] In 2003 a U.S. federal judge found Iran and its intelligence ministry liable. The court found an Iranian MOIS operative detonated the bomb, with Hezbollah’s help. [6]

Iraq. In 2019 the Pentagon said at least 603 U.S. personnel deaths in Iraq were the result of Iran-backed militants. EFPs. Roadside bombs. Rockets. Snipers. [7]

January 28, 2024. Tower 22, Jordan. A drone killed three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers: Sgt. William Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Sanders, Spc. Breonna Moffett. The Pentagon: “We know that Iran is behind it.” [8]

“Death to America” is not my phrase. It’s theirs. In 2019 Iran’s Supreme Leader defended the chant. [12]

Now put Israel next to that list. Read it again. Ask yourself which column scares you.

That’s not a “ridiculous hypothetical.” That’s the scoreboard.

One country’s record is written in American blood. The other is an ally we signed a 10-year, $38 billion security agreement with, covering 2019 to 2028, that Congress funds year by year. [9]

And a man who wants a Senate seat called the question “ridiculous.”

So here is my reading, and it is mine: he knows the answer. He couldn’t say it out loud. Because saying it would cost him with people he needs.

If anyone has evidence that’s not why, show me. I’ll look at it.

“Lobbied us”?

El-Sayed said Israel “has pushed us to go to war in Iran.” [1]

What, we don’t have our own agency?

We can’t make up our own minds?

The country that was instrumental in winning World War I and World War II can’t decide on its own?

That line treats America like a child. Talked into things. No will of its own.

That’s not analysis. That’s an excuse.

Which country do we have more in common with?

Freedom House, 2025: Israel, 73 out of 100, “Free.” Iran, 11 out of 100, “Not Free.” [15][16]

In 2022 Khaled Kabub was sworn in as the first Muslim justice on Israel’s Supreme Court. [17] In 2021 the Islamist Ra’am party joined Israel’s governing coalition. [18]

In 2023 hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets against their own prime minister’s judicial overhaul. [19]

In 2022 Mahsa Amini, 22, was arrested by Iran’s morality police over her hijab. She died in custody. A UN fact-finding mission found her death “was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities.” [20]

In Tel Aviv, organizers counted about 100,000 people at the 2021 Pride parade. [21] In Iran, sodomy between men is punishable by death under the penal code. [22]

UN experts say Iran’s treatment of the Baha’i “bears all the signs of a policy of systematic persecution.” [23]

Open. Self-criticizing. Respectful of other faiths and other ways of living.

Which column is that? You already know.

Which brings me to the real question.

What kind of constituents does a state have when a candidate can’t even say out loud that Iran is simply more of a threat than Israel ever will be?

That is, if we accept that Israel is even a threat.

That’s not a question about one man. That’s a question about us.

About our immigration policy.

About the fact that we stopped requiring assimilation to our culture, and started apologizing for it.

We let people in. Good. I’m one of them.

But we stopped asking the one thing that matters: whose side are you on?

Here’s what I hear. Israel as the puppeteer. America as the puppet. To my ear, El-Sayed and his ilk sound eerily more like our enemies, and Israel’s enemies, in their rhetoric.

That’s my read, from his own words. If you’ve got evidence it means something else, show me.

Coddling is as pernicious as laziness.

We tell newcomers they don’t have to choose. Keep the old grudges. Keep the old enemies. America will just make room.

That’s not kindness. That’s coddling.

And coddling rots a people the same way laziness does. Slowly. Then all at once.

Gratitude is the opposite.

Gratitude is spine. It’s agency. It’s standing up and saying: this country took me in, and I will defend it, out loud, even when it costs me.

The Three A’s.

Accountability. Own what you say. And what you dodge.

Assimilation. You came here. This is home now. America’s enemies are your enemies.

Allegiance. When someone asks who the bigger threat to America is, you answer for America. First time. No hedging.

That’s stewardship. You don’t just live in this house. You guard it. For the ones who come after.

A Senate candidate should be able to clear that bar without breaking a sweat.

He couldn’t.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?

Spine, not knees.

LIVE GRATEFUL.

Sources

The Jerusalem Post, “El-Sayed says Israel, Iran have both proven ‘dangerous’ to US.” https://www.jpost.com/international/article-911134
New York Post, Ryan King, Oct. 8, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/us-news/el-sayed-wont-say-whether-iran-is-more-a-threat-than-israel-in-michigan-senate-debate/
JNS, “In Michigan Senate debate, El-Sayed won’t say Iran worse than Israel…” https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/in-michigan-senate-debate-el-sayed-declines-to-say-iran-worse-than-israel
National Archives, “444 Days: Selected Records Concerning the Iran Hostage Crisis 1979-1981.” https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/iran-hostage-crisis
U.S. Marine Corps, Marines TV, Beirut remembrance (241 service members: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, 3 soldiers). https://www.marines.mil/News/Marines-TV/videoid/634642/dvpTag/Beirut/
Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 264 F. Supp. 2d 46 (D.D.C. May 30, 2003). https://www.leagle.com/decision/2002310264fsupp2d461305 ; see also UPI, May 30, 2003. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2003/05/30/Judge-rules-against-Iran-in-1983-bombing/28221054319705/
Military Times, “Iran killed more US troops in Iraq than previously known, Pentagon says,” April 4, 2019. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/04/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says/
U.S. Department of Defense, “3 U.S. Service Members Killed, Others Injured in Jordan Following Drone Attack,” Jan. 2024. https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/3659809/3-us-service-members-killed-others-injured-in-jordan-following-drone-attack/
White House fact sheet, “Memorandum of Understanding Reached with Israel,” Sept. 14, 2016. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel ; CRS, “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel.” https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33222.html
WOOD TV8, full debate video, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.woodtv.com/video/michigan-u-s-senate-candidates-abdul-el-sayed-and-mike-rogers-debate-at-wood-tv8/12250853/
Detroit Free Press, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/10/08/abdul-el-sayed-mike-rogers-u-s-senate-debate/92162055007/
Reuters, “‘Death to America’ aimed at Trump, not American nation, Iran leader says,” Feb. 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/death-to-america-aimed-at-trump-not-american-nation-iran-leader-says-idUSKCN1PX0T7/
Washington Examiner, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4760420/el-sayed-dodges-israel-iran-greater-threat-us/
JTA, Oct. 9, 2026. https://www.jta.org/2026/10/09/politics/is-israel-or-iran-a-bigger-threat-to-the-us-michigans-abdul-el-sayed-wont-say
Freedom House, Israel: Freedom in the World 2025. https://freedomhouse.org/country/israel/freedom-world/2025
Freedom House, Iran: Freedom in the World 2025. https://freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-world/2025
The Times of Israel, “Khaled Kabub sworn in as Israeli Supreme Court’s first Muslim justice,” May 9, 2022. https://www.timesofisrael.com/khaled-kabub-sworn-in-as-supreme-courts-first-muslim-justice/
The Times of Israel, on Ra’am joining the coalition, June 2021. https://www.timesofisrael.com/meretz-says-coalition-deal-includes-push-for-lgbt-rights-raam-vows-to-oppose/
Reuters, “What is happening in Israel? Judicial overhaul protests explained,” March 27, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uproar-over-israeli-judicial-changes-whats-it-all-about-2023-03-27/
Reuters, “Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran custody was ‘unlawful,’ says UN mission,” March 18, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/mahsa-aminis-death-iran-custody-was-unlawful-says-un-mission-2024-03-18/
AP via ClickOrlando, “Tens of thousands attend Pride parade in Israel’s Tel Aviv,” June 25, 2021. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/world/2021/06/25/thousands-attend-tel-avivs-first-post-lockdown-pride-parade/
Human Rights Watch, “Iran: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities,” Dec. 15, 2010. https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/15/iran-discrimination-and-violence-against-sexual-minorities
UN News, “Rights experts urge Iran to end ‘systematic persecution’ of religious minorities,” Aug. 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1125162

Hasan Gets a Firing Squad — Livestreamed, December 3rd.

Presidents and candidates from both parties have told you the same thing.

Ronald Reagan, 1984: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”[16]

George W. Bush, 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants.”[17]

Barack Obama, 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”[18]

Hillary Clinton, 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws.”[19]

There are two kinds of immigrants in this country: grateful and ungrateful.

Be that as it may, every one of us gets judged by what we do, not where our parents came from.

On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan walked into the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and opened fire on soldiers getting ready to deploy. [3][4]

Thirteen dead. Thirty-two wounded. [2][4]

That was almost 17 years ago.

This week, the country finally named the date.

THE DATE

On Oct. 2, President Trump approved Hasan’s death sentence. [1]

On Oct. 6, the acting Secretary of the Army, Adam Telle, ordered the execution: firing squad, Fort Hood, 1 p.m. Central, Dec. 3, 2026. [1]

Same post where Hasan did it. [4]

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell put it in one line: “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.” [3]

If it happens, it’s the first military execution since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth. [2]

Now the Pentagon says it will livestream it. [8]

Why? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said it himself, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, in an interview with Jack Posobiec: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public. Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” [20][21]

THE THIRTEEN

Say their names. Not his. Theirs. [4]

Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, 55
Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52
Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 56
Capt. Russell Seager, 51
Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow, 32
Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29
Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22
Spc. Frederick Z. Greene, 29
Pfc. Aaron T. Nemelka, 19
Pfc. Michael S. Pearson, 22
Pfc. Kham S. Xiong, 23
Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, and her unborn child
Michael Grant Cahill, 62

They were unarmed. They were standing in line for shots and paperwork before deploying. Hasan fired 146 times at soldiers who wore the same uniform he did. [4][8]

So who pulls a trigger on his own? Let’s look at the man who swore the same oath they did.

HE SWORE THE OATH

I’m not a general. I’m not a lawyer, but I’m an American citizen. Qualifies for just as much.

Here’s what I see.

Hasan was born in Arlington, Virginia, to Palestinian immigrant parents. That makes him a second-generation immigrant. [11][15]

What matters is what he did with what he was given.

The Army trained him as a doctor. [11] He served two decades. [4] He made major. [7]

Then he turned his gun on the men and women next to him.

At trial, he called himself a soldier who had “switched sides.” [7]

He told military mental health workers he could “still be a martyr” if executed. [8]

That’s not a grievance. That’s a choice.

The show doesn’t judge where your parents were born. It judges what you do. Hasan’s conduct is on the record: 42 counts, guilty on all of them. [1]

THEY SAW IT COMING

This part should make you angry.

In 2011, a Senate committee found that the Defense Department and the FBI “collectively had sufficient information necessary to have detected Hasan’s radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.” [9]

Two officers at Walter Reed called him “a ticking time bomb.” [9]

His superiors took no punitive action. [9]

Worse. His evaluation for 2007–2008 praised his work on Islam and terrorism as having “extraordinary potential to inform national policy and military strategy.” [9]

They didn’t just ignore the warning signs. They wrote him a good report card.

The FBI had him, too. A task force flagged his communications with a suspected terrorist. [10] That was Anwar al-Aulaqi, the al-Qaeda recruiter. [13] A second task force “dropped the matter rather than cause a bureaucratic confrontation.” [10]

Read that again. The FBI and the Army both had Hasan’s file. The Army wrote him a good report card. The FBI ducked a confrontation. Thirteen people are dead.

That’s what coddling looks like. It’s as pernicious as laziness. Same body count.

That’s a stewardship failure. Nobody wanted to be the one who said it out loud.

THEN THE SILENCE

None of this is secret. The Senate report came out in 2011, with the “ticking time bomb” line, and it made national news. [9][10] The court-martial in 2013 made national news, too. [1]

The press covered the trial. Then it stopped asking why the system let it happen.

That’s what I’ve seen. Thirteen years of quiet about the file the FBI dropped and the report card the Army wrote. I haven’t seen anyone go back and ask who answered for it, what changed, or whether it could happen again. If you’ve seen that reporting, show me. I’ll put it up.

Now the date is set, and the coverage is back. It’s about the firing squad and the livestream. [2][3][4][8] Not the al-Aulaqi messages. Not the officers who called him a time bomb. Not the task force that ducked a confrontation.

The execution answers for Hasan. It doesn’t answer for the system.

THE FAMILIES WAITED

The families didn’t sit still.

In 2012, 148 victims and family members sued the government, Hasan, and al-Aulaqi’s estate. [12] A federal judge dismissed the claims against the government in January 2019. [13] The last of them were thrown out in 2020. [14]

So the courtroom door closed on them.

They waited anyway. Through the court-martial. Conviction in August 2013. Death sentence five days later. [1] Then appeal after appeal, until the Supreme Court turned Hasan down on March 31, 2025. [1]

Thirteen years from sentence to signature.

CBS Texas says the families and survivors have been “intertwined over the last 17 years.” [4] They were emailed before the announcement and asked whether they want to attend. [4]

THE SURVIVOR AND THE DAUGHTER

Alonzo Lunsford was a sergeant that day. He was shot multiple times, including once in the head. He played dead. [5]

“I want him to go out the same way that he inflicted death on innocent soldiers,” he said. “I’m all in support of firing squad.” [5]

He plans to be there. [5]

His message to the other survivors: “You weathered the storm… now we can close this chapter and live.” [5]

That’s gratitude. Shot, and still telling everybody else to help those who can’t help themselves. [5]

Keely Vanacker lost her father, Michael Cahill. She doesn’t want the headline. [6]

“For me, he was already dead.” [6]

Survivor Callie Logsdon wants you to remember officer Kimberly Munley and the soldiers who responded. [6]

They’re right. Remember the people who stood up. Forget the man who switched sides.

THE OTHER SIDE

Hasan’s civil attorney, John Galligan, calls the rush “horrific” and says no lawyer was present when Hasan was notified. The Army says it made every reasonable effort and followed policy. [7][8]*

Fair enough. Follow the rules. Then carry out the sentence.

THE THREE A’S

Accountability: Hasan owns every round. The FBI and the Army own what they saw and didn’t act on. After 17 years, Hasan’s accountability has a date. The system’s still doesn’t.
Assimilation: He grew up here and learned everything this country had to teach. Then he chose the enemy’s cause. It isn’t about where you’re from. It’s about what you choose.
Allegiance: He swore it and broke it. Lunsford kept his, shot again while medics worked on him in the grass. [5]

YOUR NEXT STEP

Learn the 13 names. Say them on Dec. 3. Send this to someone who’s forgotten Fort Hood. Read the rest of the series at thegratefulimmigrant.com, and follow @GratefulvsUngrateful.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?
Spine, not knees.
LIVE GRATEFUL.

*Dec. 3 may not be final. Hasan could still file a federal habeas corpus petition, which experts say could delay the execution for years. [3][7] The CBS Texas date of 17 years is counted from the 2009 shooting. The death sentence came in August 2013, 13 years ago. [1][4]

Sources

Somali Adults Robbed Us. Somali Youth Are Shooting Up Our Streets. Minnesota Won’t Say It.

Not all of them. But enough to make a real problem.

Officials don’t want to call it what it is. So they rename it.

Oct 5, Edina City Hall. Bishop Harding Smith stood up and said: “This problem is not a Somali problem. This is a youth problem.”

That’s an insult.

Look at the reports. Nobody in them is a Japanese kid, a South Korean kid, or a Scandinavian kid. The police named who’s involved. They’re Somali.

THE SHOOTINGS

Four shootings in about two weeks. Edina, Eden Prairie, Bloomington. Suburbs, where you take your kids to football games and church.

Sept 22, Edina: shots fired at teens playing basketball at Our Lady of Grace Church.
Oct 2, Eden Prairie: gunfire at a homecoming game. Two Somali teens were shot and the stadium was evacuated.
Oct 5, Eden Prairie: gunfire at a Speedway on W. 78th St.
Oct 6, Bloomington: more than 100 rounds fired on Harriet Ave.

THE POLICE NAMED IT

Eden Prairie Chief Matt Sackett: “it is the Somali-American gang activity.”

Bloomington Chief Booker Hodges: the suspects and the victims are all Somali-American.

Sheriff Fletcher: “Somali on Somali.” He counts 14 homicides and more than 120 shooting incidents across the metro in the last year.

Three lawmen said Somali. One microphone said youth.

THEY ROBBED US, TOO

The kids pull the triggers. The adults ran off with the money.

Feeding Our Future: about $300 million stolen from a program meant to feed kids.* 80 people charged. 69 convicted.* They weren’t teenagers. Most were grown Somali-American men and women running fake nonprofits, restaurants and payrolls.*

Call either one a youth problem with a straight face.

YEARS IN, STILL ON THE DOLE

On top of the stealing, look at the welfare rolls.

Minnesota, Somali-headed households compared with native households (2014–2023):*

54% receive food stamps, compared with 7%.
73% have someone on Medicaid, compared with 18%.
81% use at least one welfare program, compared with 21%.

Read that first line again. Fifty-four against seven.

Too many came, stayed, and never stood on their own.

Assimilation isn’t a feeling. It shows up in a paycheck, a language, and a neighbor.

THE NUMBER NOBODY KEEPS

Minnesota stopped counting. After the Metro Gang Strike Force was shut down in 2009, the state gang database was cut back to almost nothing.

The last statewide count was in 2008. 2008. That was 18 years ago. It listed 2,438 confirmed gang members, 54% of them Black. None of those counts ever tracked Somali or any other national origin.

The 2017 audit of the state gang file listed just 47 people.

Nobody hid the number. They just stopped keeping it.

You can’t fix what you won’t name, and you can’t stop what you won’t count.

THE THREE A’S

Accountability: The shooter owns every round. Leaders who rename the problem own the next shooting, and so do officials who won’t keep the count.
Assimilation: A gang isn’t a culture. It turns its back on the country that opened the door.
Allegiance: You defend your neighbors first. Not the gang. Not the excuse.

YOUR NEXT STEP

If your neighbors only heard “it’s a youth problem,” send them this. Read the rest of the series at thegratefulimmigrant.com, and follow @GratefulvsUngrateful so you’re not the last to see the next one.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?
Spine, not knees.
LIVE GRATEFUL.

*Welfare figures come from a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of 2014–2023 Census survey data. Households are counted by the head’s origin, so benefits for US-born children are included.

*Feeding Our Future: about $300 million per the Star Tribune (Aug 2026); the Justice Department’s original 2022 figure was $250 million. 80 charged and 69 convicted as of Aug 2026. Most defendants, but not all, are Somali-American. Founder Aimee Bock is not Somali; she was convicted in March 2025 and sentenced to 500 months (about 41 years) in May 2026, and is appealing.

Sources

Grateful vs. Ungrateful, Episode 2: What Can’t You Unsee in These Videos? Ungrateful Immigrants being Blamed for Riots in France.

Look at the videos.

Fires in the street. Blocked school gates. Projectiles at police. Burning bins and barricades.

I’m not going to tell you what to see. You already saw it. And you can’t unsee what you’ve seen.

Fires at Quatre-Chemins (Pantin / Aubervilliers, Paris suburbs), Reuters via The Guardian, Oct. 2, 2026:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/oct/02/fires-burn-as-french-students-protest-against-lack-of-investment-in-education-video

Blocus des lycées : les raisons de la mobilisation, France 24, Sept. 29, 2026:
https://www.france24.com/fr/vidéo/20260929-blocus-des-lycées-en-france-les-raisons-de-la-mobilisation

Blocage des lycées : de vives tensions entre élèves et policiers, France 24, Oct. 2, 2026:
https://www.france24.com/fr/vidéo/20261002-blocage-des-lycées-de-vives-tensions-entre-élèves-et-policiers

So let’s unpack it. I’m an imperfect man. I’m not an expert. I just dug in to find out what’s under the picture. Here’s what I dug up.

WHAT HAPPENED

On Sept. 17, students at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, backed teachers striking over missing staff and resources. Within about a week it went nationwide.

As of Oct. 3–4: more than 5,000 arrests, about 85% of them minors. More than 600 police officers and gendarmes injured. 78 education staff injured. Classes suspended in about 400 to 500 schools on one Monday alone. And, in the Education Minister’s own words, 24 schools burned or ransacked.

What were they asking for? Classes of 32 to 35. Teachers who are out and never get replaced. Run-down buildings. Repairs that never come.

Fair enough. Those are real complaints. But a burned school doesn’t add a teacher. It’s one more building somebody has to fix.

THE TRANSLATION

Here’s what I think your eyes are telling you.

What we’re seeing is misguided empathy, cascading into bigger and bigger problems. It’s the classic socialist utopia. You want to help everybody, at the expense of somebody else. And when reality hits the fan, you do the same thing that failed. Again. And you never account for the consequences of your failed policies.

You can’t plant an acorn and expect an apple tree to come out.

Same seed. Same fruit. Every time.

Let me walk it through.

STEP ONE: OPEN THE DOOR WITHOUT ASKING THE QUESTION

First, they open the borders to immigration, really without vetting whether it’s going to be a net addition to the host country.

Why do they do it? Altruistic reasons. Socialist reasons. To give people from third-world nations a shot at a better economic dream.

That’s not the purpose of immigration.

I’m an immigrant. I know what a door means. But a country isn’t a charity. Immigration is supposed to make the host nation stronger. That’s stewardship. You don’t hand out the house keys because you feel good. You ask: will this add to the house?

STEP TWO: ASK FOR THE MONEY

Then they ask for money. Because they have the control.

They ask for money to spend on resources to bring the people from the third world up to parity with the citizens of the nation.

And France pays. France’s tax take was 43.5% of GDP in 2024. That’s second highest in the OECD. The OECD average is 34.1%. On education alone, France spends 5.4% of GDP. The OECD average is 4.7%.

So nobody can say France didn’t spend.

STEP THREE: NEVER DELIVER

And they never really deliver.

Look at the grievances on the record. One of the heaviest tax loads in the developed world. Above-average school spending. And still: 35 in a class. No teacher in the chair. Buildings falling apart. Hundreds of schools shut for a day because the system couldn’t hold the line.

That’s not a funding problem. That’s a delivery problem. Stewardship isn’t how much you spend. It’s what you deliver.

And here’s the irony. At Saint-Exupéry, where it all started, things calmed down when authorities sent more staff. The fix came through the door of the institution. Not through a fire.

STEP FOUR: WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WERE GIVEN THE CHANCE?

To add to that, the people that were brought in have barely shown any type of agency or improvement.

The numbers show where they are. Île-de-France, the Paris region, has about 18% of France’s population but holds about 40% of its immigrants. In Val-de-Marne, where Créteil sits, about 23% of residents are immigrants and about 18.5% are children of immigrants. That’s roughly double the national share. Saint-Exupéry sits about 200 meters from a priority neighborhood, a QPV, one of the neighborhoods France itself flags as struggling.

So yes. Decades later, still in priority enclaves. Still in handout neighborhoods.

Now let me be straight with you about what the videos and the numbers don’t say.

Nothing in that fire footage, or the France 24 clips, proves anyone’s immigrant status. The footage shows conduct. Judge that. France doesn’t publish race statistics. Nobody can hand you the ethnic makeup of the people lighting bins, and I won’t make one up. The Interior Ministry says about 85% of the arrests were minors. The census shows where immigrant families are concentrated. And not every flashpoint is in a priority neighborhood. Central Paris schools got hit too. It’s mixed. I’m telling you what’s documented and what isn’t.

But the pattern is there. Generations in. Still the ward of the state.

BOTH SIDES CARRY IT

Here’s where it all lands.

The ingratitude of the people who were given a chance. And the failure of stewardship by the people who were, and are, in charge.

The immigrants cannot be held innocent in this whole fiasco.

It’s both. It’s the ingratitude of people given a chance who have barely picked themselves up enough to stop being the ward of the state. And it’s the failed stewardship of the leaders who keep planting the same seed and acting surprised at the fruit.

Both sides carry it.

I’ll say this plainly, because I mean it. Coddling is as bad as laziness. Maybe worse. Laziness lets the roof cave in. Coddling tells a man he doesn’t have to stand up. Treat a grown man like a ward long enough and he’ll start acting like one. Then he’ll burn the place down and blame you for the matches.

That’s not compassion. That’s misguided empathy. And it’s the acorn again.

I’m judging conduct here, not anybody’s heart and not anybody’s blood. Plenty of immigrant kids in those same neighborhoods went to class, did the work, and built something. They’re proof it can be done. They’re the grateful ones.

I sure hope that’s accountability. I’m not an expert. I’m just a man who came here with nothing, was given a chance, and knows what he owes.

THAT’S THE POST

That’s the post. And that’s the translation of what your eyes cannot unsee. When you unpack it, that’s what you dig up. That’s what you find out.

Gratitude isn’t kneeling. Gratitude is spine. You stand up. You carry your own weight. You make the house better than you found it.

So you tell me.

Grateful, or Ungrateful?

Spine, not knees.

LIVE GRATEFUL.

Minnesota Stopped Counting in 2008. It’s Time to Start Again.

Minnesota stopped counting in 2008

Last Friday night, shots rang out at a high school homecoming game in Eden Prairie. Two young men were wounded. Police say the shooting appears to have been targeted, and no arrests have been made.

Ten days earlier, on September 22, someone fired from a car at teenagers playing basketball outside a church in Edina. By the grace of God, no one was hurt. Afterward, Edina Police Chief Todd Milburn said this on the record:

“For the second time in recent months, Somali teens and young adults have been the targets of or have had some level of responsibility for shootings in community gathering places.”

He called it “consistent with a pattern of gang violence throughout the region.”
https://patch.com/minnesota/edina/somali-teens-young-adults-tied-2nd-edina-shooting-2-months-police-chief-says

In July, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said there had been 14 Somali homicides and more than 100 Somali shootings in two years, all gang-related. His office counts 12 Somali gangs. To his credit, he also said this is about 300 kids, not the whole community.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ramsey-county-sheriff-somali-gangs/

Here is my concern. The last statewide count of gang members by background in Minnesota was in 2007. Since then, no official number has been published. Nearly twenty years. In that time we’ve seen al-Shabaab recruitment out of the Twin Cities, the Feeding Our Future fraud, with more than $240 million stolen from a program meant to feed children and 66 people convicted, and now shootings at ball games and church courts.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/feeding-our-future-ringleader-sentenced-500-months

We do have numbers on public assistance. In Minnesota, 54 percent of Somali immigrant households receive food stamps, compared with 7 percent of native-born households. 73 percent are on Medicaid, compared with 18 percent.
https://cis.org/Report/Somali-Immigrants-Minnesota

In fairness, about 72 percent of Somali Minnesotans are in the labor force, more than the state average. Many are working hard. Needing help is not the same as committing fraud, and I won’t pretend it is.
https://politifact.com/factchecks/2026/feb/02/donald-trump/bongino-minnesota-somali-employment-poverty-benefi/

But this is the point. We count who gets help. We don’t count who’s doing the harm. You can’t fix what you refuse to measure.

I’m not an expert. I’m an immigrant who loves this state and this country. And I believe coddling is just as harmful as neglect. Looking away to spare feelings doesn’t protect anyone, least of all the young people being pulled into gangs or the families who came here to get away from exactly this kind of violence. They deserve better than our silence.

So here is my call to the officials we entrust with the first job of government, keeping us safe. Our governor, our legislators, our county attorneys, our sheriffs and our police chiefs:

FIERCELY gather the data. Publish it. Then enforce the laws already on the books, without fear and without favor.

That’s stewardship. Not on your knees, but with a spine.

If you’re a Minnesotan, ask your representatives one question: when will we see current, official numbers?

Is it grateful to look away? Or is it grateful to tell the truth and fix it?

Grateful or Ungrateful?

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸
Gratitude starts in the spine, not on the knees.
— A Grateful Immigrant

Grateful vs. Ungrateful, Episode 1: The Interpreter and the Streamer

Presidents from both parties have told you the same thing.

Barack Obama, 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_Xk66gsRU&t=828s
Transcript: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/20/remarks-president-address-nation-immigration

George W. Bush, 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants…”
Transcript: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-8.html

Hillary Clinton, 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws…”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANT_ZBhpvtw&t=1439s
Transcript: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-debate-the-university-nevada-las-vegas

Be that as it may, there are two kinds: Grateful and Ungrateful.

This week it comes down to one question. Where does your loyalty sit?

GRATEFUL: FAHAD AL-KADHIM

https://www.abc15.com/news/uplifting-arizona/u-s-military-interpreter-gifted-truck-to-launch-his-own-trucking-company

In 2007, Fahad Al-Kadhim was 17 and living in Iraq. Al-Qaeda grabbed him because his parents worked for the U.S. military. He says they tortured him for three days. His family paid a ransom to get him back.

He had a choice: hide in his room or fight back. He fought back. From 2008 to 2011 he interpreted for U.S. troops in combat. Then he came here, became a citizen, and joined the Army National Guard, where he trained as a truck driver.

On September 17, Progressive’s Keys to Progress program handed him the keys to a 2024 Freightliner, plus $50,000, to start his own trucking company. His plan is to put his girls through college and hire veterans. In his words: “To make sure I pay back to another veteran and keep that culture to support each other.”

He had every reason to stay bitter. He stayed grateful, stayed down to earth, and never got rich off what he went through.

Sources:
ABC15 Arizona: https://www.abc15.com/news/uplifting-arizona/u-s-military-interpreter-gifted-truck-to-launch-his-own-trucking-company
Progressive: https://progressive.mediaroom.com/2026-09-17-U-S-Army-Veteran-to-Receive-2024-Freightliner-Cascadia-Through-Progressives-Keys-to-Progress-R-Program

UNGRATEFUL: HASAN PIKER

Hasan Piker was born in New Jersey. He’s an American citizen with more than 3 million followers on Twitch. On The Axios Show, Alex Thompson asked him straight: “Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?”

His answer: “Pound-for-pound as far as the number of deaths, yes. We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”

To be fair to him, in the same interview he called 9/11 “a horrifying tragedy” and said, “I truly believe in the promise of America.” Take him at those words too. Then weigh the answer he gave when the question was put to him straight.

That answer isn’t a one-off. In March 2026 he joined the Nuestra America Convoy to Cuba, a trip billed as solidarity with Cuba against U.S. sanctions. In May, Fox News reported that the Treasury Department’s sanctions office sent records requests to about 40 Americans from that trip, Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin among them. The question is whether the trip’s money, planning, or supplies broke U.S. sanctions on Cuba. No one has been charged, and Piker says he was never formally served.

On his stream that weekend, he told viewers: “The news is not great, OK? I mean, it’s bullsh*t, but still not great that they’re after your boy.” He said, “Everything we did was cleared by Treasury,” and that he believes the real target is Neville Roy Singham, a pro-communist tech millionaire living in Shanghai who funds CodePink and groups like it.

Here’s the part that matters most. Piker built his career telling millions of people that capitalism is the villain. That same system made him rich. In 2021 he bought a $2.74 million, five-bedroom home in West Hollywood. When people called it hypocritical, his answer was, “Tax the f*** out of people like me.” He sells his own merch. He keeps the lifestyle.

You can believe whatever you want in this country. That’s the whole point of it. But gratitude means living in a way that matches what you say you believe. Take everything the system gives you, then call it the villain from inside the house it paid for. By his own standard, that’s the ungrateful part.

This one doesn’t shout. There’s no flag burning, no rock through a window. It’s calm, it sounds reasonable, and it comes with a body count to back it up. That’s the soft kind of ungrateful, and it reaches more people than the loud kind ever will.

Sources:
Axios interview (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJx9ypjF90&t=1153s
Axios: https://www.axios.com/2026/09/17/hasan-piker-axios-show-terrorism-america
Fox News, Treasury records requests (May 23, 2026): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feds-subpoena-hasan-piker-medea-benjamin-over-cuba-trips
Newsweek, Piker’s stream response: https://www.newsweek.com/hasan-piker-says-theyre-after-your-boy-as-cuba-trip-investigated-11990078
Just The News, Singham comments: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/marxist-streamer-hasan-piker-says-scrutiny-over-cuba-trip-about-china
Business Insider, 2021 home purchase: https://www.businessinsider.com/hasan-piker-house-twitch-streamer-criticized-los-angeles-2021-8
The Daily Beast, his reply: https://www.thedailybeast.com/socialist-twitch-streamer-hasan-piker-get-grief-from-twitter-for-buying-dollar3-million-los-angeles-home/

SIDE BY SIDE: THE THREE A’S

Accountability. Do they own their choices, or blame others?
Al-Kadhim: Tortured at 17, he chose to fight back instead of hiding. Now he’s building his own business.
Piker: Blames his own country for “tremendous terror,” and calls the Treasury questions an “intimidation operation.”

Assimilation. Do they become American, or demand America change?
Al-Kadhim: Came here, became a citizen, put on the uniform, learned a trade.
Piker: Born here. He lives the American dream and tells his audience it’s the problem.

Allegiance. This country, or another flag?
Al-Kadhim: Stood with the country al-Qaeda punished his family for helping.
Piker: Said America is worse than al-Qaeda, pound for pound, then went to Havana to stand with Cuba against U.S. sanctions.

GRATEFUL OR UNGRATEFUL?

Cast your verdict in the comments, then send it to someone who needs to see this.

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸

Gratitude starts in the spine, not on the knees.

— A Grateful Immigrant

Every society has a rhythm.

That rhythm mostly comes from the dominant culture. And for a culture to survive, it has to be good for people. It has to help them flourish. It works best when it’s practiced in the open, with nobody forced into it, and when it expects a lot of each person: show up, own your choices, carry your share.

I used to train couriers. The job was fast, the demand was high, and there was little room for mistakes on efficiency or safety. The first thing I taught every new driver was that every area has a rhythm.

So I’d ask them, “Is Minneapolis different from Duluth?”

Nobody ever said no. Not once. They all knew it. Minneapolis moves one way and Duluth moves another. The traffic, the people, and the pace are all different.

Then I’d say, “Well then, routes have rhythms too. Learn it, and you can do this job at the highest level and enjoy it.”

The ones who learned the rhythm got good. They got fast, safe, and trusted, and they liked coming to work. The ones who fought it were miserable, and they made everyone around them miserable too.

Cultures are the same.

It’s the same lesson and the same comparison. America has a rhythm. You didn’t have to be born here to learn it. Millions of people who weren’t have learned it and done well. But you do have to learn it.

LEARN IT AND LIVE IT.

Presidents from both parties have told us who we are for decades.

Ronald Reagan, 1984: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGhP78y8BM8&t=785s

They’re right. We are a nation of immigrants.

But listen to what’s under the words. Bush and Clinton both said it out loud: a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. That’s the rhythm. Anyone can come, but coming isn’t the end of it. Learning to live here is the part that counts.

Every courier I trained started out new to the route. Being new was never the problem. What mattered was what they did next.

Be that as it may, there are two kinds: Grateful and Ungrateful.

The Grateful learn the rhythm. They learn the language, keep the law, raise their kids to love this place, and leave it better than they found it.

The Ungrateful take everything the rhythm offers and fight it the whole way. They wave another flag, sneer at the house that took them in, and demand it be remade to look like the place they left.

It’s the same doorway, but they walk through it with a different spine.

What to expect

Up to now, I’ve written one post at a time, whenever something needed saying. Starting this week, it’s a weekly series: Grateful vs. Ungrateful.

Every week you’ll get two real stories, one Grateful and one Ungrateful. They’ll be from people of every background and color, because we judge conduct, not where someone came from. Every clip and every story is checked before it goes up. I’ll trace the original source, confirm the date and place, and link it so you can see it for yourself. There’s no rage bait here, only facts.

Then I’ll hold both stories up to the same barometer, the three A’s:

Accountability. Do they own their choices, or blame everyone else?
Assimilation. Do they do the work of becoming American, or demand that America become like the place they left?
Allegiance. Is their loyalty to this country, or to another flag?

Then you judge. Cast your verdict, and send it to someone who needs to see it. Each week I’ll post the results from the week before.

The first verdict comes this week.

Grateful or Ungrateful?

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸
Gratitude starts in the spine, not on the knees.

— A Grateful Immigrant

Gratitude or Grievance — Which Camp?

Last post I told my Caucasian brothers and sisters to stop apologizing for existing — to say you shall not pass when someone treats their country like a crime they must pay for forever.

This is the other half.

There are two sets of immigrants.

One set brought Gratitude — and Agency. The other brought Grievance — and entitlement.

Which camp are you in?

Not your passport. Not your accent. How you act.

What those words mean

Gratitude is not soft thank-you notes. You got a country with law, work, speech, and a real shot to stand up. You answer by carrying your share. You treat this place as a country you joined — not a hotel you use and trash.

Agency means you own what happens next. You work. You learn English. You keep your word. You fail and try again. You do not hand your life to a government office or a crowd story about how nothing is your fault.

Grievance means the country owes you first. Your pain is the main fact. History is a bill — and only the people who built this place are supposed to pay it. You can criticize a policy. That is fine. Living as a permanent victim is a job.

Entitlement is grievance with a list. Benefits without duties. Status without joining. The right to change the country while skipping the cost of belonging to it. Soft talk calls that justice. Straight talk calls it demanding without earning.

Remember the three A’s.

Accountability: you own your hands. Assimilation: gratitude with work attached. Allegiance: you defend the country — you do not wear the oath like a costume.

Camp One lives that. Camp Two performs it.

This is not new

History is full of both.

Rome. Some outsiders learned Latin, served in the army, paid taxes, and became Roman in practice. Others came in under deals and kept their own loyalties until the center could not hold. Same empire. Different camps. The split was not “foreign” versus “born here.” It was join versus take.

America’s early settlers and later waves. English, Scots-Irish, Germans, Scandinavians — farms, churches, towns, factories. Then Italians, Irish, Poles, Jews fleeing pogroms and poverty. Many got hated on arrival. A lot of them stayed, learned English, opened businesses, sent kids to school, fought in American wars. That is Camp One while people spat on them. You can see the proof in the cities they built and the names on the war memorials.

Jews in the West after expulsion and murder: often barred, taxed, blamed — and still heavy in science, business, books, and defense of conscience under law. They had every reason to nurse grievance. Many chose work and loyalty to the open countries that finally let them live. Camp Two would have torn down the place that took them in.

East Asians in the United States. Chinese who built railroads under cruel exclusion laws. Japanese farmers before the internment stain. Koreans and Vietnamese after war. Taiwanese and Indians in medicine and engineering. Not a fairy tale. A pattern: arrive, study, open shops, keep family tight, climb. A lot of their home countries were wrecked by war or tyranny. They did not try to remake Main Street into the system they left.

Cubans after Castro. Arrive with almost nothing. Build in Miami. Vote. Argue. Succeed. Hate the dictatorship — and still treat American law as something to join, not something to replace with Castro’s rules. Real anger at a real tyrant. Aimed at the right target. Camp One.

Vietnamese boat people. Risk death at sea. Camps. Then jobs, church, small business, kids with degrees. They did not demand America become communist Saigon. They asked for a chance. Camp One.

People who fled the Soviet bloc. They chose the West knowing what waited at home if they were caught. That choice is a verdict on systems. Agency.

Now the other side.

Camp Two is not “immigrants.” It is a posture. Native-born people do it too.

It shows when people enter — legal or illegal — and treat the law as optional. It shows when the citizenship oath is just paperwork for benefits. It shows when “some people did something” shrugs off the murder of American civilians. It shows when people on the public payroll will not clearly condemn “Death to America.” It shows when needing welfare is sold as a right and self-support is treated as mean. It shows when clan over law, honor violence, religious rule over citizens, or normal corruption get brought in — and you are called a bigot for saying no. It shows when swapping out the host population is called justice, and saying no is called sin. It shows when the West’s habit of criticizing itself becomes a forever debt — while every other people’s empires, slave trades, and mass killings get excused.

Camp Two has older cousins: groups that kept separate rule forever inside a host state; people who used a country as a cash machine; radicals who used free speech to end free speech; outsiders who took wealth and never joined. Different clothes. Same engine: demand without joining.

Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim killed on a scale that still staggers. That was not “Western guilt.” That was a system that claimed every life for the Party. People ran from that toward the West. Camp One was glad to be here. Camp Two showed up and taught the West to apologize for being the place people run to.

The test

Ask yourself out loud.

Do you treat American dead as murdered neighbors — or as a lesson against America? Do you learn English — or demand the country bend around your refusal? Do you work, fail, and try again — or keep a permanent bill for someone else to pay? Do you defend the system that produced this flourishing — Judeo-Christian Western order, constitutional republic, property, speech — or do you call that system the oppression you came here to enjoy? Do you want your kids to join this country — or inherit a grievance business?

If you were born here: same test. Being born here does not put you in Camp One. Soft citizens can be Camp Two with no suitcase. Weak men who will not say you shall not pass are how Camp Two wins without a fight.

If you were born elsewhere, like me: the suitcase does not decide. Your spine does.

I am a grateful immigrant. I am in Camp One — Gratitude with Agency. I did not come to tear down what worked. I came because it worked. I will not help Camp Two turn the host’s fairness into a leash.

Fair friend. Worst enemy when crossed. That line from the last post holds here. Camp One is the friend. Camp Two crossed the line when it mistook patience for permission.

What to do

Keep the door open for Camp One. America needs people who join. Work. Families. Loyalty. That is how you keep a country.

Shut the door on Camp Two’s project. Borders. Vetting. Remove people who break the law. No special deal because the story is sad. A helping hand? Yes. A permanent open tab? Heck no. A right to remake the country you ran toward? Never.

The West is not guilty for being where people want to go. The West is responsible for staying a place worth going to. That takes men who push back, hosts who will not take blame for crimes they did not commit, and immigrants who choose Gratitude with Agency over Grievance with entitlement.

Which camp are you in?

Say it. Then live it.

It starts in the spine, not on your knees.

LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸

– A Grateful Immigrant