I think a relationship is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. Woody Allen

Our friend, and my Little Brother Edwin’s mom, Martha Silva became a Citizen yesterday and Michele and I were lucky enough to be at the Paramount Theater in Oakland to see it. I left feeling great about America, our America. The American that welcomes immigrants, the America that has demonstrated diverse opinions result in a stronger, more resilient, county, the America that knows that, what we used to call the melting pot, is why we have prospered.

An organization starts dying when it worries more about keeping people out than it worries about trying to get more people in. That is a sure sign that the organization no longer wants to move forward, that it wants to stay in the past, slowly atrophying. I read the papers or hear Trump on the radio and I worry that we have changed into a country that wants to go back to the past, I worry that we now are trying to keep people out, then I look at Facebook or Twitter and that worry is amped way up; to fear, barely covered by rage. But in a very real way, all that is fake news, yes, all the bad news we read about has happened but that wasn’t all that happened. It is not even most of what happened. Last year, 754,700 immigrants became citizens up from 291,800 in 2010.

This morning, I watched 726 more people become new citizens. Of that 726 people, the largest subgroup was about 150 from Mexico, followed by The Philipines – which was a surprise – then China and India. These new citizens came from 82 different countries ranging alphabetically from Afghanistan to Yemen. When we left, the afternoon group was already starting to line up. Also, when we left, Martha had already applied for a passport and registered to vote. And we know that she is going to vote.