08/08 3eme semaine/ 3rd week

Ah Amerique, que tu es belle!

Tes plaines si vastes dans le Nebraska. Tes montagnes si hautes qu'elles rappellent les Alpes. Le desert et ses canyons immenses dans leurs solitudes. Tes parcs nationaux, si beau a visiter.

Et puis tes hommes bon sang, tes hommes! Ceux qui ont etes geniaux comme dans la course pour aller sur la lune, ou pour le projet "Manhattan". Ceux qui les premiers ont passes le mur du son, traverse l'Atlantique en solo. Et aussi ceux qui se sont battus, pour que je puisse encore parler le Francais aujourd'hui, et qui ont laisses une trace de 14000 croix dans le cimetiere au dessus d'une falaise a Colleville-sur-mer...

13 mars 1991. C'est une date historique pour moi. J'entends encore la porte du vol Air France qui se ferme. Un avion qui s'eloigne de la mere patrie, sans que je sache si je la reverrai un jour.

21 aout 2008. C'est avec fierte qu'avec tant d'autres dans un stade de la ville de Phoenix que je suis devenu un citoyen de plus dans les 300 millions que l'Amerique compte dans son pays. Pour le prouver, j'ai deja recu mon passeport, bleu cette fois. Quelques larmes aux yeux, nous avons tous recu notre diplome qui affirme que nous sommes bien Americain a partir de maintenant. Beaucoup d'echanges de poignees de mains, les felicitations fusent. Grande emotion dans ce stade, ou 107 pays etes representes. C'est que nous avons tous nos histoires avec l'immigration. Beaucoup de pleurs et de grincements de dents, avec ces batailles entre le gouvernement, les avocats, les visas de travail...

Cette semaine, c'est fini.

J'ai donne ma carte verte, pousse un grand soupir de soulagement.

J'ai souri aussi.

Je suis fier de mon nouveau drapeau. Heureux d'etre dans ce pays qui m'a laisse suivre un reve.

Apres tous la France, elle, elle m'a laisse tombe.

Failure is not an option.

This week I dealt with eating issues, trying to deal with the ever changing tastes of a toddler. And I also dealt with heat, humidity (yeah, you think you have it bad, try it in the desert...), and a plethora of other seemingly mundane issues dealt with by parents around the country each day.

This week I also had to wake up my baby girl before her normal 'rise and shine' time, shove her in a car, and drive her, along with her father, to downtown Phoenix where I proceeded to get out in the heat, stand in a long, long line, attempt to use a dirty bathroom, hang out in a stadium, and sit around for hours on end for one soul purpose - for my husband to become an American.

In this stadium stood nearly 2000 persons from over 107 countries around the globe. Some had traveled long. Some had roads that were not so bumpy, like the lady from Switzerland. After all, what bad things ever happen in Switzerland? They run out of chocolate? Others came from war torn, ravaged countries which have never seen the light of day, never seen clean water, never seen a day go by wherein their children could safely play, fearful they would be stolen by guerrillas and made to join their army, never to see their families again.

And in this group stood my husband, he, too, with his story of a long, long struggle to become more than his former country could allow, would allow - to dare to dream of not only a better life, but a great life in what was whispered to be the greatest country on Earth.

He was told by many, including those who should have been supporting him most, that he would fail, that nothing would come of this venture to America, that he would return in ruin, in humiliation, in disgrace. They laughed and ridiculed. But even then he knew enough to believe that these people spoke from their own deeply held bitterness to have never taken the chance, the challenge, to have their dreams come true, no matter how far one would be required to travel to see it realized.

And travel he did, not only as a young child. But he traveled through great poverty, an utter lack of any knowledge of the language or customs, toiling year after year after year against all odds, despite all the nay-sayers echoing in his ears, and the pain in his heart to leave the only place he had ever known to be home, not sure if he could or would ever return, overcoming hurdle after hurdle after hurdle out of sheer determination born of one simple truth - he could not fail.

And some 15 years later, not only has he become a success by American standards, but he has become an unmitigated success by any standard throughout the world.

I have always been blatantly, shamelessly American. As was said in a movie, which I cheered on in agreement, my blood most indeed runs red, white and blue. And of the many things this country has done for the world, for foreign countries, I am proud for what it does for the singular individual with enough gumption, wherewithall, determination, and grit enough to make even the most hard ass Marine proud to leave their homeland, penniless, jobless, friendless, leaving behind family, friends, familiarity, all for a single cause - a dream.

To dare to dream. We all do it. Most keep them locked safely away inside, where they bump and bash against our inner demons, rarely to come out save for fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of what we cannot control, cannot know without certainty.

But what is life without dreams? What is life without taking chances to better oneself? To believe that you can go so far as to reach the stars?

And what can be said of these 2000 immigrants who dared, who dreamed, and, most of all, saw those dreams through countless hardships that your average American can't even begin to understand.

I am an American. I stand by it's flag. I stand by this country, as in marriage, for better or for worse. But, truth be known, it is inside these people who were not born here, many of who still have pronounced accents, who speak in broken English, who dress is poor clothes, who drive old cars, who lack knowledge of our customs and ways, who are, as is in the word, alien. It is these people, truth be known, who are the true Americans.

I am like the fruit of the tree. I am here by birth, by default.

But these individuals, they are the tree, they are America, for it is they who give the words of our Constitution life.

And so there they go, one after one, collecting their papers which now signify their newly adopted status of American citizen. And there they go, one by one, striving and fighting to make their dreams come true. And America wraps her branches around them, to protect them as they toil, providing freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble. And there go soar, to the stars, their dreams bursting to life like fireworks against the dark skies of what cannot be done. One by one by one by one. So beautiful, not only in the belief of a dream, but in the courage to have made it into a reality.