I’ve brushed a few tears from eyes at Sporting matches when the Sporting hosted naturalization ceremonies. As I watched people become American citizens, I imagined my own ancestors on boats bound to America from Ireland. My forebearers were searching for a place to call their home. They dreamed of a chance to earn a hardscrabble living more than they sought a fortune in a new land. My family arrived as part of the masses of Scotts-Irish that populated first Appalachia and eventually the Ozarks that produced me.
So much of my image of America is bound up with the notion that so many yearn to come here for purposes of freedom and fortune.