From Oppression to Opportunity: Arkady Milgram’s American Dream

Episode Summary:

In this powerful episode, Paul Ward sits down with Arkady Milgram, a former Soviet citizen who risked everything to pursue freedom in America. Arkady shares his journey from growing up under communist rule to becoming a successful financial planner in California. Along the way, he reflects on the emotional moments of leaving his homeland, building a new life from scratch, and reuniting his family. His story is a heartfelt reminder that freedom comes at a cost—and with limitless opportunity.

⏱️ Timestamps + Topics 00:05 – Welcome from Paul Paul introduces Arkady Milgram, a Russian immigrant who built a life and career in America. 00:51 – Meet Arkady Milgram Arkady shares his gratitude and excitement to tell his story. 01:22 – Life in the Soviet Union Arkady describes his childhood under communist propaganda and his early curiosity about the West. 02:59 – Cracks in the Narrative Discover how an American magazine article helped shift Arkady’s understanding of the U.S. 05:01 – The Dream of Leaving Learn how Arkady used Israel’s “family reunification” program as a legal route to escape. 07:40 – The First Step to Freedom Arkady recalls the emotional moment stepping off the plane in Vienna—and realizing he was free. 09:14 – Stateless in Italy He explains the three-month transition in Rome, applying for refugee status in the U.S. 11:32 – Arriving in Los Angeles With support from distant relatives and Jewish organizations, Arkady begins his new life in LA. 13:41 – His First Job in America From unloading furniture in Hollywood to biochemistry work, Arkady dives into American work life. 15:35 – From Biochemistry to Business Why Arkady transitioned from lab work to entrepreneurship—and how he started a travel agency. 17:34 – Discovering Financial Planning Arkady finds his true calling helping others navigate personal finance through education. 20:25 – How to Reach Arkady He shares his phone number and open-door policy for financial conversations—no pressure, just help. 23:28 – Reuniting with Family Hear the emotional story of how he brought his parents and extended family to the U.S. 26:12 – A Love Letter to America Arkady closes with powerful reflections on freedom, family, and what it means to be American.

📞 Contact Arkady Milgram: www.milgramfinancial.com Phone: [phone] Calls only — texting uses a different number due to compliance. Email: [e-mail] 2801 Townsgate Road Suite 320, Westlake Village, CA 91361 👉Contact Paul Ward: p. 805-479-5004 e. [e-mail] www.homeandranchteam.com

📢 Thank You to Our Sponsor: Opus Escrow — making this episode possible.

**Securities and investment advisory services offered through qualified registered representatives of MML Investors Services, LLC. Member SIPC. Milgram Financial and Insurance Services, LLC is not a subsidiary or affiliate of MML Investors Services, LLC, or its affiliated companies. 790 E Colorado Blvd, Ste 710, Pasadena, CA 91101, [phone] CRN202808-9197265. **

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hey friends, it's Paul Ward here,and welcome to On the Road. Well,
I've had an opportunity to meet peoplefrom all over the world in my walk of
life, and one person that I want youto meet today is our Arkady Milgram,
and I love his story.
He is truly an American successstory and came to this country as an
immigrant from Russia, as you can tell,

(00:28):
from his backgroundwith virtually nothing.
And I'm just fascinated by his story.
And he's really is a kindof a rags to riches story.
He's now working as a financialplanner here in the United States,
but really today is more about hisstory and just coming to America and
what he appreciates about this greatcountry. So to welcome to On the Road.

(00:51):
Thank you Paul.
Appreciate an opportunity to speakwith you and looking forward to have a
discussion.
Absolutely. So you're, you'rebased in Westlake Village,
California, and, you know,just outside Los Angeles.
But you and I have had an opportunityto talk a few times and and you know,
you came here as a young manand just a fascinating story.

(01:14):
And I'd love for you to, youknow, share it again with our,
with our listeningaudience. So how did you,
how did you get to the United States?
Okay, thank you. So let mestart from my childhood.
So I grew up in the former Soviet Union.
I was born in 1963,
so just about mid seventies whenI went to like a grade school.

(01:35):
And obviously like everyone in Russia,
I was brainwashed by communistpropaganda at the time.
And I was told thatcommunism is about a future.
United States is a countryof you know, like, of
you know, hating people youknow, being aggressor attack,

(01:58):
possibly attacking us,
and kind of finding how I was told thatthere is two islands of freedom in the
entire Western hemisphere, Cuba in Chi.
So you can see kind of revers it wasright. So, so interesting. You know,
like we know what Cooper wasright at the time. Anyway, so, so,
but what happened is that, I guessmy mind, the way my father, you know,

(02:22):
educated me, you know,
I was challenging everything I heardand I was trying to find the information
when back then there was no internet andit was a truly iron wall of information
that, you know, that protectedRussians from hearing anything,
information from outside. Imean, we had like radio station,
like Voice of America or RadioFreedom. So it was hard to get,

(02:47):
because they're trying to blockthose. They was the San Jams, those,
those waves. And, you know,it was difficult to get it.
But occasionally we got it occasionalAmerican movies, possibly the.
Who was the, who was theleader of Russia at the time.
It was Ner Ner was theleader of Russia at the time.
And so what happens that this methat I start kind of challenging what

(03:10):
I hear and I see things notadding up very interesting is that
part of hel center agreements,
there was a hel and key agreement reachedby Soviet Union and United States and
as countries somewherein the early seventies.
And part of it was interesting becausethere was a permission for us to publish
a magazine in Russia, inRussia magazine called America.

(03:32):
And Soviet Union actually publishedmagazine in United States called Soviet
Union. I don't know if youknow about this magazine,
because you probably don't ,
but in Russia to get theAmerican magazine was like,
I think it was a hundredthousand copies, but it's almost,
almost impossible to get, like,
my father was able to get maybe twoout of 12 issues per year because

(03:54):
it very, very hard to get, it wasvery, very difficult to, you know,
to find where you can get, I mean, theyofficially published it, so, you know,
so I started reading thatmagazine and I was like, underst,
it was published by US government.
So so one of the articles wastalking about an accident that
happened in ink reducing factory,like, whereas there were many ink,

(04:15):
so machine broke and in the,in the employee got, you know,
the ink, you know, spilled on, onhis clothes and his, and his body.
And the article said that not only companysaid that employee home on that day,
they actually bought him full newset of clothes. Hmm. And I said,
it's impossible in America.I mean, America is, you know,

(04:37):
it's about exploitation. America, it'sabout hatred. Amer cannot be happening.
So start reading those things inEngland. So things not adding up this's,
just one example where I start gettinginformation of what really life in
America is and comparing it towhat I getting from official
sources.
And that's how it made me toultimately decide to that I need to

(04:59):
leave.
Interesting. So, so you knewthat you wanted to leave,
but it's not easy toleave, right? You had to,
you had to put together a plan ofsome sort to find your way here?
Yeah, it was really, really hard.
During the time until pretty muchRB shop came to the power in 1985,

(05:19):
it was literally impossible.Now I am Jewish by religion.
So I mean, really, I, I didn't really wasexposed to a lot of Judaism in Russia.
I didn't know Jewish holidays. Ididn't know a lot of Jewish history,
but I was Jewish becausemy parents were Jewish.
So what ultimately was reached anagreement between Israeli government and,

(05:41):
and the Soviet government to allowso-called family reunification.
So that's the only legal wayto leave Russia at the time.
So basically you kind of tryto find a relative in Israel,
and by the way, everybody plays a gamelike Israeli government knew that,
you know, they, people trying to leave.
So they tried to find relatives for usin Israel who would kind of invite us to,

(06:05):
to visit with the family. Andthat's how I initially applied.
So I applied to leave Russiato go to Israel. That's how,
how I was allowed to leave.
And were you thinking that you weregonna go there or you always knew that
America was the ultimate destination?
I I always knew America was the ultimatedestination, and and by the way,
s were fine with it as well. So, soactually what happened is that I,

(06:30):
because Russia in Israel didn'thave diplomatic relationship,
they didn't have any flightsfrom one country to another.
So we went to a neutral country,
a relatively neutral country forAustria to Vienna. Mm-Hmm .
So the first flight out of Russiawent from Russia to Vienna.
And when I landed in Vienna, bythe way I still remember, look,

(06:52):
it happened at Saudi, what,1988. So we're talking about
37 years ago. I still feel chill in, in,
you know, in my mind I was on thatplane and I didn't believe I'm leaving.
And I like the only thought in myhead, but at the time was it's their,
their plate, they can still turn itaround. So like, you know, I, you know,

(07:15):
and and like when I,
when landed and in a physicalstep from playing to the ground,
they have like a stay of plane stairsand, you know, and was it physical step,
the freedom, like thatstep that I made, you know,
I can tell you I probably the mostimportant day of my life, I mean,
and I kind of feel now I'm free. NowI can do whatever I want. Right? So,

(07:37):
and then at that point Iwas approached by, huh?
You had no job and you had no.
Yeah, I had no, that was not evenconsideration at the time, you know,
it was just, just getoutta jail basically.
And and I remember that theguy met me in in airport.
He was from Jewish organizations and heasked me, United States, and I said yes.

(07:58):
And he asked me, I think he asked mein Russian, and I said, yes in English.
He said, you can say yes inRussian, don't worry about it.
You can speak Russian. And I, andfor me it was like, I leave Russia,
I forget Russian language, I'm notgonna do anything anymore. Like,
that's how I felt at thetime. Mm-Hmm .
Funny because obviously I speakRussian well, and you know,
my family is Russian and we have a lotof Russian heritage here in US. But, but,

(08:20):
but at the time it was like a, youknow, this feeling that, you know,
you know, Americans take it for granteda lot. I mean, you know, like, you know,
we, there's a lot of problems here.
I know that people here on adifferent part of political spectrum.
We talk about a lot of challenges andI agree there is certain issues this
country has needs to deal with.

(08:41):
But the most important part thatevery single person here is free.
If you wanna live United States,if you can live United States,
if you wanna move inside United States,you can move in United States. Right.
Basic freedom that people just take forgranted. I wasn't, I didn't have that.
Yeah. The people who who appreciatefreedom the most are the people who have
experienced life without it. Right, right.Everybody else takes it for granted.

(09:06):
'cause It's just Right.Yeah. Part of everyday life.
So you got to Austria and thenwhat happened? Did you, didn't,
did you stay there and work in a.
Yeah. So basically theway it worked, kind of,
it was a agreement between USgovernment, I think US government,
Israeli government,and Italian government.
Because basically when Ileft Russia, Russia, I mean,
Soviet Union took away my citizenship.

(09:27):
So I left as a person without citizenship,I didn't have any citizenship.
Interesting. So I didn't haveany passport. I only have like a,
basically was like a visa, it'slike a document, one page document.
Mm-Hmm . This,my, this is my portal,
but it was not really a passport.
So the agreement was eachwith Italian government,
that Italian government allowedpeople like me to get into Italy from,

(09:51):
so we take a train and went to Italy.
And in Italy we spent about threemonths where US government was,
did the, you know, refugeepaperwork because, you know,
it was documented where submitted toapplication for refugee status was
submitted to US Embassy in Rome.
And we were waiting for decision.It takes, took about three months,

(10:11):
we had to past interview in US Embassy.
And ultimately the decisionwas given, you know,
for most people obviously was given to,
to allow to get to United States asa refugee, as a political refugee.
And you, did you have any familyat all here in the US or, or.
Well, I had the likelypart that I did have,

(10:32):
because some people didlive similar way that I did.
Some people left actually earlier, soI think it was very distant relative.
I don't even remember because I'm nolonger in contact with them at this point.
But it was distant family of my father.
And what happened is that theyactually were in Los Angeles,
so they petition JewishFamily Service of Los Angeles

(10:55):
to pro to, to issue a warrantfor me to come to Los Angeles.
The way it was worked like this, ifyou don't have any family new all,
go to New York because New YorkJewish community accept everyone.
But let's see if you have some relativewith, so competition, a Jewish family,
the service like in Chicago or LA or SanFrancisco, Miami was different cities,

(11:18):
then you can go straight to those cities.
So I was one of the lucky one who actuallywas allowed to go to, to, I, I've,
I, I've flown straight to Los Angeles,
and that's where I pretty much spent my,
the rest of my life now so far.
So after, after Italy where you werethere for what, about three months?
About three months we were learningEnglish trying to understand American

(11:39):
lifestyle. So it was kind of interestingtime. We did some, you know, because,
you know, was, I wasentrepreneurial by nature,
which was obviously not allowed inRussia. I couldn't, you know, show that,
right? So I found a tourcompany in Italy that was doing
tour for, for different Italian cities,
in Russian language forsome people who there,

(12:01):
who lives there and who speak Russian,whatever. And I was trying to,
to find those clients in exchange for,to taking three tools. So nobody paid me.
I didn't get a payment, I didn't getpaid for it, but they took me for those,
those tools. And so I actuallymanaged to went to like Venice,
Lawrence you know, PI,some Italian cities.

(12:24):
So I kind of enjoyed that part a littlebit. Again, I was telling for free,
and I remember that the onlythings I could allow myself, like,
like a slice of pizza. I remember I wasin, in Venice and I was just, you know,
I couldn't do anything. A slice ofpizza was my, my my my like my lunch.
Right? So you got to, you got tothe United States, and now you, you,
you're starting over again. You're, youknow, no longer doing the tour thing.

(12:47):
You got to LA and howdid you find a job here?
Okay, so yeah, that was like, so again,
I got very good helpfrom Jewish organization.
A Jewish Jewish family service and Jewishvocational service start helping me to
find a job. So what I did, Idid have a degree from Russia.
I did graduate university andI got degree in biochemistry.

(13:08):
So I showed them my diploma,which is I brought with me,
and they and they tried. So they foundme a job about four months after.
So first four months I got thefinancial support from Jewish Jewish
organization. They provide me support,they helped me to rent an apartment,
a small apartment, like one bedroomapartment. And again, they took,
they sent me to Englishschool. It's OORT of it,

(13:33):
ORT Institute, which was on erBoulevard. Mm-Hmm .
And so I went to that school andthen I started looking for the job in
about four months. I founda job. My first job, I mean,
first real job I did alsopartially, I, you know,
during this time I was trying to getany money, so they gave me a job.
Like there was a, I thinksome Hollywood studio,

(13:55):
documentary studio was moving offices,
and they needed somebody who helped themto move furniture. So that what I did.
And like, you know,
basically I remember that kind offunny how English works and, you know,
English was not, not, obviouslyI didn't know very well.
So I get a call from thatcompany that says, you know what,
go to stop by the old office, pick upDoy and come back to the new office.

(14:17):
So I go to the old office, Isaid, who is Doy? And people said,
we don't have Doy here. I said, you know,like, I know it's a song. Hello Dolly,
right? . So, so I was lookingfor a person, Dolly, and they said,
he told me to become Dolly. It's like,oh, okay, this things you mean that,
you know, . So it's kind of howwas the language, language just went.
So anyway, it is kind of funny.But anyway, so my very first job,

(14:40):
probably for a couple of months wasthat I was just loading furniture and
actually unloading, mostly unloadingfurniture in the office and putting in,
you know, in different roomsand, you know, kind of,
it was physically very tiring,very tiring job. Yeah. But,
but I really enjoyed it becauseI thought, I'm an American.
My dream came through. So that'show, yeah. You know, and then funny,

(15:02):
I wrote a letter to my parents that I'mworking in Hollywood. And the reason,
the reason I did that because,
because I knew KGB wasactually intercepting those letters in the reading zone.
So I wanna them off ,you know, so, so I, you know,
I'm working in Hollywood, right? Ididn't set in which capacity. Right.
A moving company.

(15:22):
, you know, so anyway, so that'show that whole thing started. And then,
you know, my first real job,I mean, professional job
I, I found you up in medical diagnosticcompany four months after I came.
Medical diagnostics.
Yeah. It was a company thatwas doing some medical tests,
kits for blood analysis, and I wasworking like in production there. Okay.

(15:45):
And then how did you get from thereto where you are now and you know,
financial planning?
Well, it was like, you know,I had three different careers.
So first I worked with that companyfor about five years. But you know,
the reason I became a biochemist and wayI was a grad. I mean, I was, you know,
I was, you know,
it happened because in Russia I waspretty determined you really couldn't do

(16:07):
what you wanted to do, that youdo what they tell you to do.
So my mother was a chemistryteacher in high school,
so she naturally taughtme chemistry earlier.
So I kind of was ahead of my, mypeers in, in, in, in chemistry class,
right? So that's how I was determinedthat I need to go to that college.
They were told me that's the collegeyou go to. I didn't have my choice.

(16:30):
Interesting.
But it really wasn't my personality. Mypersonality is I wanna work with people,
I wanna be more active. I want to be,and I just wanna do just, you know,
lab work and, you know, and just, youknow, put one liquid to another, you know,
like in, in the chemical lab. Yeah.So that's how I ultimately determined,
you know, I, I, I was very appreciatedfor the job, and I was doing a good job,

(16:51):
and I was trying to work,
but I also was looking for somethingthat more feed to my personality.
Mm-Hmm . Imean, I got married at the time and it's my first wife,
unfortunately already divorced, but likea lot of people unfortunately. Ah, so,
so we started a travel agency. Andthe reason we did, because we thought,
you know, I wanna travelthe world a little bit.

(17:11):
So being in a travel industry would allowus like a, you know, maybe cheaper or,
or easier travel. So that'show we went to that industry.
We run a travel agency, me andmy wife for about seven years.
Just, we actually sold it threemonths before September 11, you know,
and I have.
Wow. Wow. That's, that's sometiming right there. Yeah.

(17:34):
So, so, so that's how that whole happened.And then, you know, so, and then,
but at the same time actually my wife,
my ex-wife will still continueddoing the travel agency.
I have moved out around1997, purely by chance.
I was introduced to a, a guy whoworked in financial services industry,
and he introduced me to his boss,and the rest was the history.

(17:58):
So I started working there.And then ultimately Ike,
I went to American Express FinancialAdvisors, which now called Ameriprise.
I got my first employer, first companythat I worked in financial industry.
And again, I started in 1997 when I gotmy licenses, my securities licenses,
my insurance licenses. And andI start learning this process,

(18:21):
and I become very excited. I reallyfeel that something I like to do,
something I like to learnmm-hmm .
And continue is that now it's 20,what, 28 years in this business, right.
I'm still learning. I'm stilllearning, you know, so, so, you know,
you always learn.
And that's what probably make me moreexcited about my career than anything
else.
Right. And what would you say,we're not gonna get, you know,

(18:42):
delve too much into your,you know, financial planning,
but what would you say your,
your skill set is that makes youstand out above other folks in the
same, in the same Well, I.
Can, I, I, I can tell you it's in, youknow, as I described from my childhood,
I became who I became by challengingconventional wisdom in Russia.

(19:03):
Right? So when I, when I came here,
my my nature didn'tchange. So, except here,
I didn't challenge it in political world,
but I challenged it in financialworld. So unfortunately,
similarly to what happened in Russia,there's a lot of, I would call maybe dog,
maybe something that, thatpeople perceive to be correct,

(19:25):
which is not really correct.So I start challenging.
So my approach to my industry is thatI'm challenging some conventional
decisions. I'm asking peoplequestions, why, what you're doing,
why you're doing that?
And I'm doing often just a reviewof their financial position,
whatever they do for purpose of, you know,investment, for retirement, planning,

(19:45):
you know, protection, estateplanning, you know, tax planning.
So I talk to people about thoseissues and and I just tell 'em
that things may not, if as, as theythink they are mm-hmm .
And that make me very different.
And people always findthat I am kind of a, I,

(20:07):
I find, I mean, people,
people tell me that I findkind of unconventional creative
solution 'cause their financial situation.
And that's what makeme probably stand out.
Interesting. And how can, howcan folks get ahold of you?
Well, I can probably,
we can add my like my emailaddress and my number to the,

(20:31):
to this you know, translation. I can,I encourage people just to talk to me.
I mean, again, the first talk doesnot, I mean, I can tell you one thing.
When I meet new clientor new prospect, the only
decision that people need to makeafter the first meeting with me,
it's a decision if they wanna seeme again. Mm-Hmm .

(20:53):
There's no sales goingon. And unfortunately,
our industry has a stigma oflike being sold, you know,
and people are, people would liketo know financial information.
People would like to learn aboutsome financial position, but they,
they don't want to be sold and theydon't wanna be pressed into something.
And I know that a lot of mycolleagues and, you know, do that.

(21:15):
And it's like they even,there is like, we call it,
we call close the client on thefirst meeting mm-hmm .
So basically need to ask for a checkat the end of the first meeting.
And I never done this. I never donethis in the beginning of my career.
I'm not doing this. And actually,that's what makes me successful,
because I tell people, I'm notgonna ask you, forget the checkbook,
don't break checkbook with you. Don'tbe credit card. I mean, I need it.

(21:37):
All I need to do is that there is gonnado meeting in person if we are locally
here, or we can do meetingover Zoom. And again,
result of that meeting only is that,if you like what I'm gonna say,
what can I tell you? We sit downthe second, the following meeting,
that's the only result of that meeting.
That's only decision people need to make.
So that's how I operate business.

(21:59):
So that's also make me differentbecause I'm not doing card sale.
I just educate people. I believeif I give them the information,
if I teach them certain things that I,
I learn myself by challengingconventional wisdom. Mm-Hmm .
It's gonna lead themto different decisions.
And they are ask me for those decision,but it's, they, it they ask me.
I'm not gonna ask them. Right.

(22:21):
And what is your, what is your phonenumber? Best phone number for people that.
My phone number, which is the, I, youcan call me. So I have, by the way,
my compliance, I, I have differentnumbers for texting and calling.
So they call me. I mean, I'll give youmy number for call, for phone calls.
Sure.
Eight

(22:45):
one eight nine one nine two four six oneeight one eight nine nine one nine two
four six one. That's a cellphone number. They can call me,
but they can't text on thatnumber. So if they call me,
I will give them enough differentnumber for texting because there's a
compliance reasons whywe need to use, you know,
texting need to be supervisedbecause I'm licensed.
So so that they have totext me a different number.
So if they can call meat that number again,

(23:10):
[phone], they can call me atthat number. They can talk to me.
And we can discuss if wecan set up a zoom meeting in
person meeting or any answer,
or maybe just ask me questions whatever,
whatever they feel more comfortable about.
And we'll decide whatwould be the next step.
Wonderful. And just to finishup the story your parents, what,

(23:33):
what ended up happeningto them? 'cause You left.
Well, when I left Russia,
I left by myself and I was toldI'll never see my parents again.
Imagine how hard it was, youknow it was very difficult.
But what I did, we, I,as soon as I came here,
I went to Jewish organizations and I askedthem to send a mutation to my parents

(23:56):
and situation, advocacy startchanging a little bit, you know,
Gorbachev changed that country.You know, I can tell you one thing,
very important, the guy, Ifeel my godfather kind of,
because the guy, he didn't knowme. It's Ronald Reagan because he,
while he was the president of the UnitedStates, he negotiated with RB show.

(24:17):
They allow for peoplelike me to leave Russia.
That was very importantsubject for his negotiation.
I think it is more importantthan missile reduction.
And and that's how things startchanging. So by the time I came here,
I actually came here physically whenReagan already was not the president.
You know, George W. George HW Bushtook, you know, became president Yeah.

(24:40):
In 1989.
So I came here on January thirtiesand and Wolf became a president,
bur senior became a presidenton like January twenties.
So 10 days after 10 days after hebecame a president, I came here. Wow.
But because of Reagan changed thiswhole position with Russia then
so invitation was sent and my parentswere able to come here similar way that I

(25:04):
did. So they came about a year later.So they both, and my father was very,
my father was a fan ofAmerica from built childhood,
but he was afraid ofdoing anything. He never,
he never himself of life for immigration.
So I think I paid my debtto him by bringing him over
here, taking care for him all theway until they passed. You know,

(25:25):
they passed away there,
but last 20 years of their livesthey spent in United States. So I,
I feel very proud ofthis and very mean, it's,
it's important to me that, you know,as I, I was able to bring it back.
And in fact, I also broughtthe distant family because my,
I brought the next step was my mother'ssister, my aunt, and her family.

(25:47):
And now, every time we have asense giving dinner together,
they drink for me is being thereat Gram because I, I'm, you know,
I was the pilgrim for the wholefamily to bring them United States.
Arkady Milgrim, the Pilgrim .
. Yes.
Well, Arkady Milgrim, thank you somuch for being our guest on the road.
We've loved learning your story, andcertainly folks that are interested,

(26:10):
we'll have them reach out.
Yeah, thank you. We appreciate, I mean,you appreciate this opportunity. Again,
I can tell you to finish, I cantell you this America has problems.
We know it, but America is thebest country in the world, by far,
is the best country in theworld. I can tell most Americans,
no matter how bad it is I mean, forsome people to consider. I mean, yeah,

(26:34):
there is so and it, and the reason,
it's because it's most freecountries now, the freedom.
It's it's not given, it's notgranted. We need to fight for freedom.
We need to keep our freedom. And andI'm very proud to be an American.
And I love this country.

(26:55):
And I mean in, you know, Ibuilt my life. I, you know,
I have now good family. I'vemarried a second time, and I have a,
you know, I have a two,
two children who are born in the UnitedStates that now we have already grown.
I have a good relationship with,so in distant family as well.
So it's a great country. I and you know,

(27:18):
we just need to keep it as it's.
Absolutely well said. But thank you ti.
Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it.
Be sure to tune in next timefor the next on the road.