Welcome Home...A personal reflection of the dedication of MLK monument

The Immigrant Experience

For someone born in China, growing up in Hong Kong  and coming to America some forty years ago, from time to time I still feel awed by this country: its natural beauty, its human ingenuity, its diversity, potential and its idealism.

When I left Hong Kong, it had a population of maybe 4 million people (now it’s some 7 million strong)--80% of its population is concentrated in Hong Kong Island--a space of no more than 80 square miles or so. End to end, it is no more than 10 miles wide. It's like more than all the people of Minnesota cramped in Rochester and Olmsted County. Not much elbow room, for sure.

In contrast, America is expansive and spacious.  On plane rides, I often looked down and marveled at the expansiveness of the country, its varied, diverse landscape captured poetically by the lyrics of America the Beautiful:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

American Dream

As long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be an American. I was inspired by its vision inscribed on the Statue of Liberty ... “give me your tired, your poor..” and the essence encapsulated in the Declaration of Independence...all are created equal.  And we all have the "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

At our best, Americans are generous to other people while we value innovation and individual freedom.

Freedom and Responsibility

Working for IBM before I retired I used to represent it in business dealings with other global companies. I came to learn how much other people admire the best that America had to offer.

I was working on a project with Sony, Japan. Trying to work out a procurement deal to make the “consumer” 8mm camcorder tape to be used for data storage.

On a train ride from Tokyo to Sendai, a Sony manager, a woman who spoke near accent-free American English (she had gone to high school and college in the US) asked me:

"I am curious with all those engineering specs that IBM sent us.  It must have taken a lot of people and meetings to get them done. "

"O not really. I did them ... more or less by myself."

Amazed, she said, "You Americans are great. You are free to do things all by yourself."

She is so right. We do value and stand up for individual freedom.

Content of our Character

But sometimes we forget the balance between individual freedom and stewardship. We forget we owe our good fortune to our fellow citizens. We forget that we have a responsibility to live up to America's idealism that "all are created equal."

We don't always to live up the Dr. Martin Luther King dream that we be "judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character"

You don't look American

"Where are you from?" asked the elderly gentleman.  It was a cold winter morning. The man was a few steps ahead of me. He had a gentle smile. We were both walking at the parking ramp to Mayo Baldwin building.

I was in a hurry to get out of the cold into the warm building. I let my guard down and replied, "Rochester."

Abruptly, the man's face turned red. Turning away, under his breath, he said loud enough so I could hear: "Foreigner!"

Even in the zero degree temperature weather, I was jolted.

That exchange boiled down to: "How dare you say you are from Rochester! You don't look like one of us  You don't look American."

Question: How long does someone who looks like me have to live here before they can call it home?

Who is American?

A friend of mine, a prominent African American tells me that when he goes out he makes sure he is properly attired. He has been stopped by the police from time to time asking him why he was at a certain place.

Even in Rochester, an international, enlightened city, some folks are just less "American" than others.

Welcome Home!

I was coming back from Norway on a business trip. I was coming through immigration at the Minneapolis airport. The officer eye-balled closely my passport, stamped it with a bang. Then he looked up--our eyes met. He smiled...and said: "Welcome Home!"

Walking pass the immigration station, I noticed the picture of the President of the United States hung on the wall.  With a purposeful gaze at a distance, he looked dignified and yet warm and welcoming.

Welcome to America.

Welcome Home.

Home to an open, diverse, and welcoming America that it is and still strives to be.