They're coming to America

Happy 4th of July!

I have several blogs to post in the upcoming weeks, but for now, I leave you with an experience that I had on the plane coming home from Ethiopia, and is particularly relevant to today's holiday.

I met a man sitting across the isle from me. He was going to be entering the US for the first time ever. It's very difficult to become a US citizen for people around the world. We only accept a few thousand people from Ethiopia every year, and it's determined by a lottery system; totally random. This particular gentleman put his papers in some 20 years ago to come here, and on this particular flight, this military air corpsman was going to enter the US as a citizen. I felt a little choked up thinking about Neil Diamond's famous song "America," which unfailingly plays every year during Independence Day celebrations across the nation, but it's words are no less true than they were when they were written years ago in 1980...

America -- Neil Diamond

Far
We've been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star

Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today

My country 'tis of thee
(Today)
Sweet land of liberty
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)

(today)

(today)

(today)