Many of them, and some of my friends and family, have asked for a copy of my remarks. The rules of the engagement are simple: keep it brief, no more than five minutes, and please refrain from overtly political comments. Given the current climate, and with a handful of federal immigration officials presiding, now members of the Trump administration, that assignment was, as you might expect, somewhat fraught with peril. Here is what I said:
Good
morning, my fellow Americans.
That
has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Take a moment. Close your eyes. See how it
feels inside as you say to yourself, I am
an American.
America
began as a dream. A dream that came true for the very first immigrants to these
shores, and that has been coming true across the centuries since. You had the
same dream as Myles Standish, as Alexander Hamilton, as the mother of Donald
Trump, whether you had it in Taipei, Tel Aviv or Trinidad. Yes, the same dream
as Alexander Hamilton. Perhaps one day they’ll make a hiphop musical about you. Maybe you’ll create one of your
own. And if the election of our new president doesn’t prove that any notion, no matter how far-fetched,
can come to fruition in America, well, then, nothing does.
Today,
this morning, right now, your dream
has come true.
Most
Americans, believe it or not, never had that dream. They take being an American
for granted. They didn’t save up money for years, work so hard every day with
the hope that someday, if the stars align and the fates are willing, they might get to fulfill their deepest
desire and find a way across the oceans, and get to live where they wish to
live, and be who they wish to be, and lead a life they could only imagine for so long. They didn’t have to
study to become an American. They
just opened their eyes and started crying, and boom, another baby citizen is
born.
I
work in a newsroom full of well-educated, well-informed citizens. People who
are immersed every day in the gritty minutiae of politics and civic life. Once,
I gave them the test you had to take to become a citizen. You know how many of
them passed it? One. And she was originally from Canada, so she had taken it
before.
My
point is, you are incredible people. Brave, brilliant, special people, who
worked their tails off to make that dream come true.
My
mother is a first generation American. Her grandfather left a small town in
Russia, in 1911, somehow made his way to Liverpool, England, and crossed the
Atlantic on the Lusitania—a ship that was sunk by German torpedoes on a
subsequent crossing—and landed in Boston. He worked for ten long years to save
enough money to send for his wife and five children, after World War One. Ten
years without his kids. Ten years without their father! One of those children
grew up to be my grandmother. She was raised in a town so small that its name
translates to “junction of the dusty roads.”
My
father’s grandparents came here from, we believe, Latvia. My parents were not
only the first in their family to go to college; they were the first to get
beyond the eighth grade! Between them, they had six children, and raised four
stepchildren too, all of whom have gone on to college—and most to graduate school—and all have had
successful professional careers, and made lives for themselves, and most have
children of their own, and are proud, vital, contributing members of American
society.
That
is how America was built. It is how we became the great nation we are—one man,
one woman, having a dream, and then working to make it come true. That is the
founding spirit of this society: anyone can do anything, anyone can be anything, if they are willing to put in the sweat and grit and energy to make
it happen. Whether you want to open a corner store, or start a great company,
or teach little children, or be the very best employee or make the best pozole or lumpia or siu mai anyone
has ever tasted, in America, you can do it.
(By the way, if you DO make the best pozole or lumpia or siu mai, please
come see me afterwards).
You
have taken the first step. You are now as American as apple pie—which, by the
way, comes from England, and the Netherlands. You are as American as a hamburger—which
originated in Germany. You are as American as a slice of pizza—and I don’t
think I have to tell you which country invented that.
In
this time when some in this country talk of building walls to keep others out,
of barring some immigrants because of their religion, of closing off the
pathways to the dream you’ve just made come true, I can only invite them to
come stand where I am standing, look out across this theater, and see what I
see: the stuff dreams are made of. American stuff. The very fabric of the red,
white and blue we just saluted. I salute each and every one of you.
Congratulations to you all, and thank you, for making my country, the place where
I was so blessed to be born, even better and stronger, than I could ever dream.
-->
