Happy Anniversary Grampa John
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show years ago. She described how (in real life) her authoring the book and subsequently selling the rights to the book to a movie studio earned her (in her words) a bazillion dollars. At that time, she had two close friends who were facing mountains of debt; one of whom was facing foreclosure of her home. And there sat Elizabeth on this pile of money with her friends in despair. With nothing but good intentions, Elizabeth not only offered but bailed them out; both of them. She didn’t do it to be showy or bragging. Rather, she did it to ease the stress of her friends. Months later, both friends were back in similar predicaments financially. And with this revelation she exclaimed, “I will never do this again!” She had learned that by handing them the solution to their problems she unknowingly eliminated a particularly important developmental step for them both, thus causing them to recreate the situation again.
This was very eye-opening for me – and you will find out why shortly.
October 25, 1893, is the anniversary of my great grandfather’s earning his US citizenship. I only discovered this recently although I always knew that my ancestors came from overseas. When mom passed away, I began going through her things and found a copy of his certificate (for lack of a better word) declaring him a citizen of the United States.
This was a very big deal! Generations later, it is important to me. Because he came to America and took steps to become a citizen, my family lives in the United States and is afforded all the rights and privileges that come with this, and because I located this certificate, I now know the anniversary of this auspicious occasion.
What I am getting at is this: America is the land of opportunity. People come here from all over the world. Rather than slinking into the country by whatever means, should they become naturalized citizens, America becomes theirs. They have ownership and rights – as they should. However, by eliminating or by-passing this especially crucial step, we are taking that away from them despite the so-called best of intentions. It’s not that people from other nations should not come here. That’s not America at all. But they should come here LEGALLY!
Let’s not tell ourselves that we are so benevolent that this is no longer necessary; that anyone can just walk in and stake claim to this great country of ours. Let’s allow them the right to do it like my Grandpa John. Then they too will have an anniversary to celebrate, and America will be theirs.
God Bless America!