Something about the election worth sharing ...

[oybolshoi]

I wanted to share this with everyone because I personally found it so inspiring - I'm not trying to be partisan or preachy, I really just think it speaks volumes about what the US means to so many people.

I have a very good friend from work who was born in Albania while it was still under communist rule. She has an economics degree and her husband is a physician and they've been in the US for about ten years, give or take. My friend finally was granted US citizenship about four years ago and she was thrilled to have the opportunity to vote in yesterday's election.

She was very excited by the election results and told me that from the perspective of an "outsider" that she and her husband were proud to have been a part of something so historic. But more importantly, she said they really believed that yesterday the United States lived up to the promise offered in the Declaration of Independence.

In her words, "America showed the world that it truly is a place where the impossible is possible. This is why people want to come to America - to live a better life and dream of things that can't happen anywhere else."

She's not under any illusions that our shared problems and challenges as Americans will disappear overnight - some of them will never fully go away - but I thought her idealism about the hope and promise that the United States offers was wonderful. We're all children of immigrants who over the centuries have come together in a grand experiment the likes of which has never been seen in human history.

 

[Val]

One of my former students, now in medical school, emailed me last night. He is from India, and recently became an American citizen. All his email said was "I got to vote today, and my vote counted! Now I am a REAL American!".....

.....remember, most, if not all of us on the DIS have relatives who were, at some point, "immigrants" to this great country.....we are a country of immigrants- founded by, built by and kept going by immigrants. Our families came to this country to build a better life for their children, and their children's children. We are a people with dreams, and are people who work hard to make those dreams a reality for our children......let us hope that yesterday's events are a turn towards having a new set of dreams fulfilled. Stop and truly revel in the moment- no matter WHO you voted for.....this is truly an historic event.