Some days are better than others in the news. As I am screening through no less than the three last releases of the Herald Tribune, I feel satisfaction.

I am not really catching up with the news. For that, I mostly listen to the radio. I simply have my little shot of US. news. A view from the country I am linked with by so many ties. All right: the International Herald Tribune caters to an international audience and is not as fully American as I would wish. It is still something. Today, the something comes out good.

I am moved by Pulitzer winning journalist Vargas’ story in the New York Times about his life as an illegal immigrant in the US. It is a situation he never wished for nor was responsible for. It was his family’s decision to bring him, not his. With an entire life spent in the US, he has become a fully sociological American. He has adopted the country; but the country did not adopt him and Vargas has to live with the secret of being an illegal immigrant.

This American who is not a citizen made an incredible decision: to come out as an illegal immigrant (his incredible courage to come out as a gay young man when he was a highschooler amazes me).

Vargas faces deportation, and he knows it. It is the bad part of the news. The good part of the news is that such a story can make the front news, and that, maybe, it will help all those who believe that immigration, even illegal immigration, can help countries and make them stronger by integrating irreplaceable talents. All those who think, like me, that hard work and commitment is a credit to citizenship in any free country. It is to the honor of the United States to have produced Vargas. I hope the country will consider it its honor to offer him a life as a citizen of his country.

Vargas mentions his sexual orientation, and of course, I thought of the other piece of news: the legalization of gay marriage in the State of New York. The fact that governor Cuomo found the right words “Their love is worth the same as your love” did not harm. It is also remarkable that these words were offered to a panel of powerful republican supporters according to (once again) the New York Times.

The real good news to me is that there is still a liberal-libertarian wing among US conservatives. Their agenda is obviously not mine, but I respect and understand and share the view that promotes liberty as a cardinal value. Well, I like coherence, and I like freedom.

To somebody who tells me “let me be free and make money, and I am not to tamper with anybody’s liberty to feel, love, exist in the country. I do not like laws restraining freedom and I’m concerned with God and ethics only as regards to me and not to my neighbor” I can only answer: “you are so right”.

Advertisement