Welcome to America, the greatest country on earth. It is not perfect, but close to it.

Few minutes ago, our neighbor, Michael, a successful engineering manager with a top Fortune 5, walked over to his house after dropping some very tasty “Italian” Christmas cookies that his wife, also an Italian-American made. Michael’s family emigrated from Italy some hundred and fifty years ago. There are hundreds of millions like Michael whose families immigrated to this country and who individually and collectively makes this country the great country it is.
My mother in-law who is over 70 and has both a bachelor and a master degree from the American University in Cairo made a statement that promoted me to write this post about America. She said “ I feel so privilege, I grew up in Cairo and now I am enjoying the rest of my life in this great country” and yes, this country is great because new immigrants like my mother in law, love this country as much as those whose family came here some centuries ago.
I too feel very privileged to be in this country and call this country “home” without ever losing the feeling and attachment I have for Palestine. I feel honored and privileged to join the many millions of immigrants who made this country the great country it is and will always be, not withstanding what some bigoted congressman from Virginia think.
This country is great because it has great and giant “founding fathers” that argued so hard and debated for endless days, months and even years. Who disagreed with each other in public and in private and who in the end came up with perhaps the most powerful written instrument ever written by man, the US Constitution. In my view, after the Torah, the Bible and the Quran the US Constitution ranks holy. No one would imagine that some centuries ago, these men could come up with governing instruments that defines us as a nation of values, of freedoms, liberty and institutions. It defines a system of government incorporating checks and balance, with separate but equal branches of government. Sad to say that the legislative branch did not live up to the letter and spirit of the US Constitution, with its corruption, professional and life long politicians driven by greed and bought and sold and traded on K Street
Yes, this country is great because the great grand sons of immigrants the like of Bill Gates, George Marshal, Jonas Salk, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Wilbur and Orville Wrights, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther Kings and Rosa Park, Farouk El-Baz, Edward R. Murrow and the many Nobel laureates in the arts and science and the many institutions of higher learning and the many research institutions the likes of N.I.H and CDC make up this country. It is also a country where citizens took on some very powerful senators and made them look the fools they were and contributed to the great freedoms we enjoy now. It is a great country because of some great presidents the likes of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and of course Bill Clinton. It is also a country of very generous populations that gives hundreds of billions to charity. It is a country where immigrants can graduate at the top of their class at the US Air Force Academy. Where else but in American where Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu neighbors can share the holidays and visit each other in celebration of the different religious holidays. Where else but in American where millions of immigrants (documented and un-documents) work so hard for this nation and for their families and survive the daily abuses by those who claims they are “patriots”. This country is great because it has hundreds of millions of honest, decent and hardworking parents, and who are also good and active citizens in neighborhood associations. It is great countries because aggrieved mothers can get together and raise a powerful voice and win against the liquor industry that took away their loved ones. It is a great country because student activists got together and pushed for the establishment of the EPA. It is a great country not withstanding some minor errors in its history with the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Alan Dershowitz, Elie Weisel, Bill O’Reilly, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and the KKK among others. It is a great country, because someone like me, an immigrant, the son of an immigrant can write and post these comments. I had the honor and privilege to be not only a citizen of this great country of ours, but also, with my four other brothers’ veterans of its armed services. Yes, Congressman Goode, we love and honor this country as much as you do and we honor this country for its diversity and its encompassing and embracing system, not for its exclusivity and xenophobia based on ignorance and fear. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Eid to one and to all. This is the great land from California to New York, the land for you and me.