America the Beautiful

It is easy to see the beauty of America in places like the Grand Canyon, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the rugged far north of Alaska, and any other place within her borders we might call home. These are amazing landscapes that anyone appreciates. However, the beauty of a country isn't found just in her landscapes or cityscapes.

The people who inhabit these places are as much a part of the beauty of America as their natural surroundings. Our citizens come in all shapes and sizes with equally diverse personalities and stories of their experiences. Their stories are part of the pattern of the exquisite patchwork quilt we call America. Like any good patchwork quilt, no two pieces of fabric are alike, but sewn into a single piece the patterns that emerge are beautiful.

Although America today is a tapestry of cultures, as well as shared experiences, she started as a nation of immigrants and that has not changed since the first settler stepped onto land that is now within her borders. While we tend to think in terms of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, many of the earliest settlers walked across the Bering Land Bridge to become the Native Americans and Aleuts within the North American Continent and south into Central America. Polynesian Islanders journeyed east to become the early settlers in the Hawaiian Islands.

The immigrant experience is part of the totality of America's beauty and greatness. However, being an immigrant is not an easy life. Familiar surroundings and often family members are left behind in order to begin a new life, hopefully better life. Our neighbors themselves or their ancestors left home for many reasons, often because of natural hardships such as the Potato Famine that hit Ireland with particular harshness in the 1800s. Others followed opportunities in their trades, such as technology or construction. Today we see many arriving seeking asylum from persecution.

Lady Liberty welcomed newcomers from the late 19th century well into the 20th century with the famous poem by Emma Lazarus "The New Colossus". Although most now arrive via plane, the welcoming words penned by Miss Lazarus must hold as firm today as they did when immigrants passed under Liberty's lamp to debark at Ellis Island.

You are invited to share photographs from where you live, community life in your hometown, or your own or your family's story of immigration as part of our recognition of the "Immigrant Experience". This space is for building a patchwork to express what America means to each of us.