My second Independence…

My second Independence Day as an American citizen -- that's still novel enough that I notice. This morning, I took the kids to the Oak Park parade, which is nicely small and laid back. Kavi was most excited by all the candy being thrown at her, and I enjoyed seeing a friend's kids marching with their girl scout troop. Maybe Kavi will be there too, in a few years. I never did Girl Scouts, but I did, very briefly, do 4H. It was charming, seeing all the kids in their red, white and blue. Everyone looked so happy.

I do love America, and am often proud to be a citizen. But I could wish that I hadn't felt prodded into finally applying for citizenship by the Patriot Act, which made me feel that it wasn't safe to be a green-card-holding parent who might be deported at a moment's notice, forced to either leave my children behind or drag them with me (without Kevin, at least at first) to a country I left when I was too small to remember the trip. Oh, America.

That said, here are some American things I love, cribbed in part from another list on another blog, and in no particular order: Benjamin Franklin & his autobiography, the preamble to the Constitution, hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream, Hollywood and its movies, New England in the crisp autumn, free education through high school, Cajun jambalaya, the long shady avenues of Oak Park, the street vendors of Oakland serving fresh mangoes with chili, salt, and lime, 4th of July fireworks, and "the persistent hope, however slim, of the electoral process."

3 thoughts on “My second Independence…”

  1. You should set this part

    and the persistent hope, however slim, of the electoral process

    off in quotation marks, as you are directly lifting that material from the original source.

  2. If you recall, several of the 9/11 terrorists were ones that had let their documents expire or were here on documents that were of bogus intent.
    In other countries visitors to any place are required to register at the police station or local government office. You may think it’s an inconvenience but ask the families of the victims of the subway/bus bombing in London or train bombing in Madrid if closer security wasn’t a good idea.
    My sons in the military can vouch for the fact that we cannot afford to not be vigilant even at the expense of a little discomfort.

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