There is no more beautiful sight than the wave of the American flag and all it represents. This is coming from a Christian woman born in the Middle East under an oppressive government. During this 2015 Christmas season I would like to express my gratitude and thankfulness for a country I am fortunate enough to call home. “America IS the beautiful” more so for me because it embraced my immigrant family and I grafting us into the American family. As fortunate migrants, there is nothing we can say or do that can fully express the gratitude we feel in our heart except to repeat these words on the statue of Liberty written by Emma Lazarus.

“Give me you’re tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Thank you to the men and women of our armed forces who come to the rescue of total strangers because they love unconditionally. You give so that we may stay free. Thank you for your sacrifice that can never be repaid.

Thank you to the families that have sacrificed their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and fathers for the ongoing fight to liberate the oppressed. We stand with you in grief yet in pride honoring the life given fighting for our country.

Thank you to the founding fathers of this great country that had the vision to prepared a place for the weary. We must never forget the price they paid to build the strong foundations of the America that we still enjoy. It was the zeal, sacrifice and the courage of our founders who fought and died for what we enjoy today. We cannot risk slumbering on our posts as citizens losing the American exceptional resilience.

American Revolution and Founding Era

Say what you will about America’s Founders, the men had incredible vision. It’s no small thing to start a new nation. Yet, that’s precisely what they did. Critics of the Founders allege that that these men more or less stumbled into a war for independence, driven primarily (some of the more extreme critics say “solely”) by their selfish, economic interests.

Thank you to “We the people” who raise their voices that fight tyranny to end injustice. WE have the power, this point must never be forgotten. The solutions to the challenges we face today will come from within the union not without. We must never resign as a PEOPLE to stay alert and be aware of everything our ELECTED officials are doing. Taking our eye off of our obligations as a self governing PEOPLE for one second, can cost us the independence we enjoy.

No country is perfect, but I think America is one that comes close. Thank you for being a “City on a Hill” recognized from a distance as a sanctuary, shinning it’s light of liberty freedom and hope as a guide to the oppressed world.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” Matthew 5:4

John Winthrop repeated these words as a passenger on the Arbella who left England in 1630

Thank you America for being the shelter that many seek, as President Kennedy said

“That we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us”

John F. Kennedy, a champion of freedom
John F. Kennedy’s vision of freedom and American exceptionalism are words to guide us today SAN JOSE, Calif., May 29, 2014 – May 29 is the birthday of John F. Kennedy. Few Americans remember his birth. They have a much more vivid memory of the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

This sentiment was repeated by President Ronald Reagan on the eve of his election in 1980, as well as his farewell speech to the national in 1989:

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still”

I was asked to sit in on a media interview to translate for a refugee woman that had moved here from the Middle East. She was asked, “How do you feel about America”? Her reply, “America is a mother to the world, she gathers all of the oppressed children of the world into her bosom and adopts them into her family”. This woman who was forced to flee along with her husband and their children, escaping with nothing more then the clothes on their backs, saw the same glimmer of hope in America that many immigrants have seen and those lucky enough to have enjoyed for years. As this mother and her family continue the effort of resettling and rebuilding their new future here in America, they are reassured that they are safe. They know that the roots they plant will be sown in fertile grounds and in a firm foundation. From my own experience, shortly after we resettled in Chicago, I remember my Mother sharing her sentiment, “When the plane landed on American soil, I felt I could breathe again for the first time in a long time”. No one can understand my mother’s reaction better then those who lived the life of hardship and oppression. This is why, it truly saddens me to see Americans taking their homeland for granted, not regarding her many attributes and not realizing her value. Ask the refugee woman, ask my mother, ask me and I will tell you how precious and beautiful America really is. Merry Christmas America, the land of the free and home of the brave!