Patty Brown
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

I agree. I have a Greek last name. My grandmother-in-law landed at Ellis Island. She was a proud American who was an expert at baklava. My son is into robotics and was on FRC teams in high school. He watched the FIRST Global Challenge this past week in DC. Teams from 160 countries came together regardless of language or culture to build competitive robots. Prior to the event the woman’s Afghanistan team was not allowed in the country. Then it was decided their robot could come. Finally they were permitted to join the other teams. My son shared many of the team’s stories of building robots with little power and team members walking miles to school to be able to participate in the building of the robot. After the event Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, shared with the students that the event would be moved next year to a country that could handle the event. Pay attention…a country that could handle the event. When he announced that country was Mexico, cheers erupted. I am happy for Mexico and sad for the US. Really…just what is happening????? This is not American. We are immigrants. We are a beautiful quilt of diversity. In fact it goes like this…

I lift my lamp, will you?

)
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