PROMISE OF AMERICA

by Michael Douglas Carlin

The Promise of America is, that no matter what your current station, you can take advantage of the opportunities in front of you right now and make your life better through working hard and obtaining an education. Aaron Cohen is not only a believer in this promise but an achiever of this promise.

We celebrated Aaron as the 2010 Century City Citizen of the Year, an award given by the prestigious Century City Chamber of Commerce. Aaron is an unprecedented two time recipient of this award. The awards were twenty years apart, signifying that Aaron not only made it, but he maintained his position in life and within the Century City business community.

In any other country, this would be a story that would become a legend, myth or fable. In America, this is a common story about a man who began in the most humble of circumstances and rose to greatness. Common, because others have achieved the same result from their hard work and dedication, but uncommon, because, from a purely numbers standpoint, this story isn't repeated nearly enough in America or in the rest of the world. Aaron began life in Bulgaria and, at the age of ten, dealt with Nazi occupation for two years. He took advantage of an opportunity to leave for Palestine. At fifteen and a half, Aaron did time in a British jail for protesting against the policy of not letting Holocaust Survivors come to Palestine as outlined in the British White Paper of 1939.

Aaron joined the Israeli Underground, becoming one of their most elite commandos. They were known as "Palmach" (strike forces), and they fought against the armies opposed to the formation of Israel. They passed a single machine gun from village to village to give the appearance that their firepower was greater than it actually was. Aaron would volunteer for these dangerous night missions when failure meant certain death. Together with his Battle Buddies, the armies of Syria, Sudan, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq were defeated to bring the dream of a sovereign nation of Israel into being against all odds. While in Israel, he was one of the founders of the Kibbutz Urim in the Negev desert. In Israel, he met a woman who would change his life forever. He married an American with the full intention of settling in Israel but was sent for when she visited home.

He arrived in New York not speaking the language, with no money, no education and no job. But what he did have was a willingness to work hard and to learn. Three days after his arrival, he was in school learning English. He worked a factory job during the week, went to school at nights, and worked a second job on the weekends to make ends meet. At the factory, he was named a management trainee just prior to the end of the Korean War. When the war was over, he was laid off.

He vowed that he would never be laid off again. He came to the West Coast, where he learned how to clean windows and floors.

Many people from that era would love to claim that Mary Pickford gave them their start, but Aaron was blessed to be able to work for Mary cleaning her house. This lead to other celebrities needing their homes cleaned and then to Mary's first commercial building. Aaron then landed a contract to clean all of the Hamburger Hamlets. According to his philosophy that all anybody wants to see is a hard working honest guy, he landed all of Buckeye Realty's buildings.

He sold his business and stayed on to manage it.

Now he hails from ABM, the largest building maintenance and facility services company in the business. ABM has expanded its offerings to include security, engineering, and parking to complement its monopoly in the maintenance business. Aaron's favorite claim to fame is that all three of his kids graduated from the same high school. Three years to the day after Aaron arrived in the United States, he was made a U.S. Citizen.

He credits his teachers. One teacher gave him a book he needed to complete the course at a time when Aaron couldn't afford the book on his own. All of his teachers, and he remembers every single one of them, instilled a deeper appreciation for our country. In Century City, Aaron is known for his patriotism. He regularly leads the Century City Chamber of Commerce meeting's Flag Salute. Then, at the end, he thunders: "AND GOD BLESS AMERICA, AND GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS." Every time that Aaron sees any uniformed soldier, he stops everything and politely addresses the soldier, expressing his thanks for the soldier's service. There isn't a single building in Century City in which his sweat hasn't been left. Aaron is living proof that the promise of America is still alive.

Michael Douglas Carlin is a filmmaker, author, and journalist. American Federale is available on iTunes, Amazon, and GooglePlay. Rise a Knight is available on Amazon. Peaceful Protests and A Prescription For Peace is available on iTunes.

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© 2014 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.