AUGUST 8, 2019 – This story ought to lessen the despair among my fellow non-Republicans who, with every White House Tweet storm, feel a new wave of nauseum.
Toward the end of my daily walk/hill climb, I hike down an alley that leads into our neighborhood. Below a short retaining wall on one side of the alley is a small parking area behind a coffee/sandwich shop. The establishment has been there forever. Earlier this year I’d noticed a food truck parked in back. The splashy truck sports the funky name, Eggroll Queen.
Yesterday evening Eggroll Queen pulled up to the back of the coffee shop just as I approached along the alley. The driver, a Hmong guy, hopped out, carried a couple of bins through the back doorway of the coffee shop, then reappeared to close down the truck.
I was curious to learn something about him and his food truck biz. I jumped down from the retaining wall along the alley and struck up a conversation. He turned out to be Chai Xiong, who, with his wife, is the relatively new proprietor of the truck and the coffee shop.
I walked away a long while later, having learned Chai’s life story, all about his family, his views of America, and his game plan for the future. It was all nothing short of breath-taking. I can say with confidence that as long as people like Chai are making this country great, this country will be, well, great.
Chai was expressly cognizant of the serious problems afflicting this country. But if you could hear just a piece of Chai’s story; if you could listen to his insights and observations, you would agree that the dark forces afoot in this country are no match for the strength and goodness of the unsung heroes of our culture—people like Chai.
He was just five when one night his mother woke him and his siblings and said they had to flee their home, their village, their country. His father, the village dentist and a marked man, was in hiding and joined them later. Through hell and high water they forged their way to Thailand, where the family lived in a refugee camp until Chai was 11. On September 27, 1988, Chai’s family landed in America.
“Were you in the food business before you and your wife bought the coffee shop?” I asked.
Chai laughed. “No, my wife was a financial advisor, and I’m an IT guy—software development; now I’m in charge of a law firm’s IT department.”
They have four high-achieving kids. “I’ve told them what it took to get here. They know how good they have it,” Chai said.
When the subject turned to politics, Chai was hardly in the panic I easily feel after a dose of The New York Times or a segment on CNN.
I’ve concluded that Americans like Chai have a better finger on the pulse of the country than do young progressives or old, white liberals like me.
Everything’s gonna be okay.
© 2019 Eric Nilsson
