Posted this week in Orlando Sentinel’s CF100: Aspirations Within
ASPIRATIONS WITHIN. For this son of the first Italian war bride and grandson of my dad’s Sicilian father who risked the trip to Ellis Island alone as a young boy of just 13, it was comforting, moving and familiar — in this strange time of anger and fear — to experience Winter Park’s Olde Fashioned 4th of July as 20 freshly minted citizens pledged allegiance to our flag. Each carried within their souls the promise of a tomorrow, as uncertain as that might be in these uncertain days, cradled by a country whose heartbeat pounds democracy and whose very breath demands equality. Welcome to America, our friends.