Thanksgiving 2020: The greatness --- and potential --- of the United States as seen through the eyes of a new American citizen

With America in turmoil and enduring severe economic, political and health challenges in the midst of a pandemic, this column on what it means to be an American seems to be wholly appropriate to post as we celebrate a Thanksgiving unlike any in recent history.
The nation, as seen through the eyes of a 3-year-old, as my older daughter was when this original column was published the day before Thanksgiving 1999, remains a beacon of hope in this world – even if the slogan “we’re all in this together” has become a largely empty phrase in 2020.
It's hard to fathom how the nation can begin to heal its wounds – especially while the sitting president continues to spread the false allegations about the outcome of the election being fraudulent because he can’t abide the fact that he lost. But with his own administration acknowledging Joe Biden as the “apparent winner,” states across the country certifying their votes and more Republicans conceding that the election is over, it’s clear that this president is trying to severely and irrevocably undermine the democratic process only to assuage his own hurt feelings.
His behavior is both unfortunate and a threat to our democracy. We have to hope against hope that his irresponsible and selfish behavior – his argument that votes cast for him were fine, but against him were not valid would be laughable if it weren’t so scary and reminiscent of what dictators throughout history have said before toppling democracies and scapegoating and eventually wiping out minorities (think Germany in the 1930s) --- won’t irreparably damage the country.
But if there’s reason for optimism, it is that so many immigrants – and except for the Native Americans, all of our ancestors were immigrants to this nation at some point --- still look to the United States for a chance to live a better life.
That alone is reason to rejoice this Thanksgiving, and to --- as my then 3-year-old daughter did in 1999 to celebrate her naturalization as an American citizen --- proudly wave an American flag.

This column was published in the November 2019 edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence, RI.

Twenty years ago this month, my wife and I were getting ready to celebrate what we believed would be a particularly meaningful Thanksgiving, because it would  be the first since our then-only daughter Arianna became a naturalized American citizen at age 3.
We had traveled to Hefei, China two years and two months earlier to adopt her in 1997, at the age of 15 months. The adoption occurred early in an era when thousands of Chinese girls were being given up for adoption by their birth families due to China’s one-child policy, which was established to curb its population. (China ended that policy in late 2015.)
To mark her first Thanksgiving as an American, I wrote a letter to her to put her adoption in perspective by discussing the United States’ longstanding tradition of accepting immigrants in search of a better life. The column was published on the eve of Thanksgiving in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, where I worked as a news editor until retiring in 2017.
 I chose a Thanksgiving theme for the column, because I’ve always felt that it’s the quintessential American holiday, one that’s celebrated by all Americans regardless of their ethnic, religious or racial backgrounds.
Two decades ago, the nation’s willingness to accept immigrants was, like today, being debated and tested, and sadly, 20 years later, immigrants are still being used as a political football. Yet such treatment of immigrants is in keeping with our history as a nation because people wanting to emigrate here have always faced obstacles. Just look up, for example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or the highly-charged debate before and during World War II about limiting Eastern European immigrants, including those fleeing the Holocaust, and you’ll realize that today’s treatment of immigrants is nothing new, although the rhetoric out there makes it seem harsher.
Since writing the letter to my daughter in November 1999, Arianna, now 23, has taken full advantage of the opportunities afforded her as an American. Over the years, she experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a new kindergarten student,  took numerous dance and swimming classes, graduated from Hebrew School, became bat-mitzvahed, graduated from high school and college, held down numerous jobs, traveled to Israel as part of the Birthright program, and has become a teacher.  She has, in short, become a responsible American.
Twenty years later, my message to her remains as relevant now as it was then. I hope you agree.

Dear Arianna,
Some day, when you are celebrating Thanksgiving in school and learning the story of the Pilgrims and how they survived their first winter in the New World, I hope you, too, will feel the pride in becoming an immigrant. Tomorrow, when we have dinner with Grandfather Ike, it will mark the third Thanksgiving that you have shared with us, but the first since you became an American citizen in Boston on Sept. 23.
That day, the first day of fall, was sunny and in the 60s. Your favorite part of the day was taking the commuter rail train from Attleboro into South Station before boarding the MBTA’s Red and Green lines to go the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services office in Boston’s Government Center.
Since you’re under 14, there was no public ceremony per INS procedures – that event was held Oct. 21 in Boston’s Faneuil Hall – but we still took pictures of you afterward with an American flag just so you will have a pictorial record of an important milestone in your life.
We took one picture of you with a photograph of Ellis Island in New York in the background. One day you will learn the significance of that picture: millions of immigrants came through there in the early part of the 20^th century. America welcomed them, as America welcomed you on Sept. 27. 1997, when we landed in San Francisco after a long journey from China with all of your “Shen” cousins – the other little girls who lived with you at your home in China.
We were proud of you that day and we were proud again two years later, when you become a citizen. Why? Because despite all the complaining that grown-ups like to do about this country, the United States is still unequivocally the best place in the world to live
This country allowed Mommy and Daddy’s parents, their parents and their parents’ parents to worship as they believed and to raise their families with a lot of blood, sweat, tears and hard work – and it continues to allow immigrants from across the world to put down roots and build new lives.
Citizenship carries with it many duties and responsibilities, including voting. Not enough people bother to vote, but perhaps you and your friends will become community-minded citizens and influence your generation to be good citizens.
Being a good citizen is not hard, but it starts with being a good person, following the Ten Commandments – a universal code of good conduct – and helping those who are less fortunate.
That’s why we celebrate Thanksgiving each year: the Native Americans who were in Plymouth in 1620 and 1621 took pity on the Pilgrims and helped them survive the harsh winter. You’ll learn more about Thanksgiving in the future, and one day we will visit Plymouth and its famous rock.
But for now, remember that you have become a citizen of a fine country, one that must continue to accept immigrants because, as this day reminds us all too well, everyone who is not a Native American came to this new world of America to flee persecution and enjoy the unique freedoms that this country offers.
Now, Arianna, you are an American and you, too, can enjoy that freedom.
As you grow up, I pray that you will use it wisely.
Love, Daddy
LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He and his wife Lynne adopted a second child, Alana, from China in 2002.