Boris Moskalensky plays baseball

Editor’s note: Happy Fourth of July to you all, my much-appreciated 3H readers. To honor America’s 250th birthday, I’m offering this bonus column. Enjoy your day. Stay safe. Eat more. Worry less.

I MET HIM at our neighborhood’s Fourth of July barbecue in Bellevue, Wash. The host had each of us stand and tell something about ourselves. We told of our jobs, our families, our hobbies — the usual stuff.

Then it was his turn, the stocky man with the thick mustache and the strange accent who lived next door to us. He told of his job, his family, his hobbies — the usual stuff.

“And,” said Boris Moskalensky, “I am proud to be an American.”

I had attended plenty of Fourth of July barbecues before. I had seen all the trappings — flags and fireworks, burgers and baseball. But until that moment, I had never seen anyone stand up and say he was proud to be an American.

On Independence Day 1988, the neighbors in our cul-de-sac taught Boris Moskalensky how to play baseball and slap a high-five. And Boris Moskalensky reminded us how to appreciate something that many of us had taken for granted: a place called America.

The difference between Boris and his neighbors was clear. We had never known the flip side of the independence we so casually celebrated. But Boris had lived under communist rule for 42 years. Until coming to America, he had never known the freedom he had come to embrace so fervently.

He told us that people growing up in America didn’t understand what it’s like not to be free. He told us he knew the difference because, as he put it, he had spent four decades in jail. Or running from those who wanted him in jail.