Happy 4th of July, America!

About two years ago, in anticipation of Independence Day, I asked a friend -- at that time, an acquaintance -- whether there were any special plans for his holiday weekend. He responded, with a very charming smile, "It's not my independence, so why should I celebrate it?"

And that, my friends, is what many Americans are asking today. They are raising similar questions because at this time, there are many challenges to being labeled/identified/categorized as an American -- in my case, as a "Viet Kieu My". These days, there may be more of a *risk* in claiming our hard(ly)-earned independence -- especially since we are often taken to task for how poorly we've managed that sense of independence (have you seen the oil spill disaster in the Gulf? have you seen how we handled relief efforts after the hurricane hit Katrina in LA?)

Now, as some of you may know, I love holidays and whatever excuse I have to rest and rejuvenate is most welcomed. At about that time, I was working like a fiend, and often found myself flipping through calendars to find upcoming holidays. Besides, the summer months often seem like too-long stretches of work-time so the July 4th celebrations come always at the right moment.

I also love activities/events in which large communities of different kinds/types come together to celebrate with food, fun, laughter, and general merrymaking. Somehow, it just feels like everything is right in the world -- for a brief, brief moment -- when we all come together with pride and thanksgiving (or at least some of us. Add to that celebratory spirit some fireworks under a balmy Berkeley night and that's just perfect. Isn't communal celebrations the point of July 4th? To acknowledge that we are a people of one nation?

For me, as a passport-carrying, naturalized citizen of the United States of America, July 4th is a specially marked time set apart to remind us that this country was forged by courageous people in search of freedom in the spirit of liberty and in pursuit of their uniquely defined (sometimes selfishly guarded at the astronomical cost) sense of happiness. (Or should I say that sometimes, we take the easy way out by buying into the prescribed "American Dream" and neglect to forge our own sense of identity and independence...?)

Since the new laws about immigration and since the Arizona law were passed, I am reminded that there are still people here in the U.S. who feel that I and others like me (who are recent immigrants -- recent compared to the Chinese or the Japanese or the Italians or the Dutch, or, the Brits or the Irish,etc.), we don't really belong here in "their" country. Funny how 400 years squatting in someone else's backyard makes you the "owner" and more recent arrivals are the "trespassers" who need your permission to stay.

Anyway, I am thankful for this holiday b/c it is one small opportunity to remind everyone that we are all visitors and immigrants here on this soil. Whether we arrived in 1607 or 1987 or 2009, we are all travelers who went forth from where we had been, to search for opportunity in territory unfamiliar to us. So I might not be a Brit who left England to settle the new world in the 1600s, but there is still reason for me to celebrate the 4th -- and it's not just because I love holidays. The early immigrants settled first and carved the path through the histories of humanity so that today, I can sit here freely blogging about America's birthday. And my friend can freely visit her parents in London and travel to a family wedding in Canada, and return regularly to her hometown in India. And my other friend can visit his Spanish wife's family in Spain with their new beautiful baby. And my other, other friend can study here in the U.S. on a Malaysian student visa (which thankfully also turned into a lucrative job after he graduated). And so on, and so on...

For today, let us remember and give thanks for this our Nation -- for all the people of different races, ethinicity, and cultures wrapped up in its huge ego and bravada, boiling over from its temperaments and global warming carcinogens, flooding from its icecaps melting, buried under our nation's mounds and mountains of refuse and debris, barely recognizable from its gulf-coast drilling seepage.

Happy birthday, dear nation, and may we survive and thrive through another year!