HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA...and thanks, Mom

I telephoned my mother Monday night to ask if she’d write me a little something about what the Fourth of July means to her. She’s a naturalized American, the proudest I know, and so I thought her comments might be something nice to publish on this special day, but she reminded me she had houseguests coming for the weekend and would be too busy preparing. Suddenly, though, she was talking… “….I just feel so privileged to have been welcomed here, so honored”......my topic had provoked some feelings, and I was quickly taking notes on the back of an envelope on my desk.

“People born here take America for granted,” she continued, “I feel very privileged that I’m an American. I remember how hard it was for me to get a VISA. Even on the Excaliber, the ship which brought me here, some paperwork hadn’t been filled out correctly so the ship’s doctor had to examine me there…I think it was something to do with my eyes…” Mom is Armenian and was born in Istanbul and raised in Cairo, Egypt. “Do you know that there are people who come from the old country now with the phone numbers of how to get welfare here when they arrive? That's so wrong, the harder it is to come into this country, the more you appreciate it….you feel like you’ve really accomplished something! You are in America!” Mom told me.

“It hurts me how this country’s changed.” I asked Mom what she meant by ‘changed’. “Well, in Cairo, you had to really watch yourself on the streets, be careful who you were standing next to, you couldn’t walk outside at night, and now it’s almost like that here. Fifty years ago, you could walk anywhere, you could leave your door unlocked, but now it’s almost like Cairo, you have to be careful. I miss how it was, but I’m convinced good will prevail, we’ll feel that freedom again.”

“I just know this country will go back to how it was when I first got here. It has to…I know it will……By the way, honey, do you know where I can get a copy of the Constitution?”

With that, I knew my interview was finished. Could I have made up a better ending than that?

Thanks, Mom, I love you. And I love how you love this great country that you and Dad gave to me. I so appreciate that I didn’t have to work to get in, and remember that I and a bunch of really good people are blogging every day trying to make sure that “good” you feel so sure about “will prevail.” And I’ll get you a copy of the constitution. You really ought to have one. We all should.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE! ...FROM MY FAMILY TO YOURS..........Z