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"Today I am happy," she said. "If I go today, I go a happy woman. God bless this government."
To the casual passerby, this declaration might smack of the overdramatic. But if anyone has earned the right to effuse such emotion it is Sargon. An Iraqi refugee, the 80-year-old Skokie resident has seen the other side of democracy; the brutal and oppressive rule of a tyrant who permits no rights, freedoms or liberties. When the United States granted Sargon and her four daughters political asylum in 1974, Saddam Hussein had not yet officially come to power but the threat of his despotic reign to come nevertheless weighed heavily on Iraqis� minds. Today Iraq holds �elections,� where Hussein runs unopposed and forces his people to vote, and then boasts to the rest of the world that Iraqis are resolute in their unwavering support for him.
Given the alternative, it is no wonder that for Sargon and her family the act of voting in general, and the election of Blagojevich, himself the son of immigrants, in particular, brings so much joy to their hearts.
The Sargons and the Blagojeviches are the poster-families for immigration. Hard-working, upstanding and patriotic, they are proud inheritors of the United States� rich immigrant tradition.
Blagojevich fittingly held his victory party at the A. Frankl and Sons factory in North Chicago where his father worked in the steel machine factory for three years in the 1960s. During his acceptance speech Blagojevich appealed to the heavily ethnic crowd when he evoked his father�s condition upon arriving in America from Serbia: �my father was a penniless immigrant whose only assets were courage, determination and a hard to pronounce last name.�
Raymond O�Shana, Margaret Sargon�s nephew, emigrated from Iraq in 1968 just as Saddam�s Baathist party was coming into power. He spoke passionately, and somewhat portentously, about democracy and the message Blagojevich�s victory will send to the rest of the world.
�This is an example for the world to see that an immigrant�s son can be the governor of Illinois. There is a root of ethnic diversity in this country, and the people of the world know that this country is the new civilization. If the United States shall ever fall, the rest of the world will fall with it.�
Linda Sargon came with Margaret to Chicago on Dec. 4, 1974 when she was 25 years old. Once exposed to the fruits of democracy, her love affair with politics began immediately.
�At the time I was [in Iraq], we didn�t know what voting was, we didn�t know the pleasure of it,� she said. �It was not until I got to the United States that I realized the joy of democracy, the joy of having your voice heard.�
At first a loyal Republican, Linda Sargon moved to California in 1983 to work for the Reagan presidency. But she became disillusioned with the party in 1986 when the Iran Contra scandal broke, and eventually moved back to Illinois in 1989 where she has since become a staunch supporter of all things Democrat. Blagojevich�s campaign mantra is that of change and a better life for the working people, and Sargon says she believes him. She says that she is most optimistic about his promises to create more jobs for the blue-collar workers of Illinois and to put a freeze on the ever-rising cost of higher education.
Sargon moved north to Skokie in the late �90s and has ingrained herself in the town�s governmental affairs. She is a member of the Human Relations Commission and head of the Commission�s Immigration Committee as well as a fierce supporter of and campaigner for Illinois District 9 Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.
As the party slowly dispersed around them, the Sargons looked as relieved that the campaign was over as the weary Blagojevich. Earlier in the night the new governor spoke to the heart of the immigrant condition in a short but sincere declaration, when he said, �Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in the American Dream.� But even more importantly for today�s immigrant wanting to make a new and better life in America, Rob Blagojevich and the Sargon family are the American Dream.
