Feeling "lucky" in America

Outside, the vitriol is raging; angry words about our borders and who crosses them, taxes and who pays them, citizens and what makes them.

But in a room at Bellevue Community College, the talk was of our alphabet. To test her students' skills, teacher Judy Roberts had them stand in alphabetical order, according to their first names.

It took a little while for the men and women, most of them middle-aged, to figure it out. Finally, there was Mercedes from Mexico beside Myaga from Mongolia beside Nina from Russia. They looked up and down the row. All smiles.

I smiled, too, as I watched this row of immigrants taking their place in America. Letter by letter. Word by word.

It is how some arrived here, though, that has the country and now the U.S. Senate locked in debate.

Coming to America lacks the majesty it did for my grandmother and mother, who came from France on a mighty steamship, suitcases in hand, to register at Ellis Island.

Now people scurry across our borders, dodging our laws, while others here on visas ignore the deadline to leave. I understand the anger some people feel; the folks who pay their taxes to help fund services, who play by the rules, and even go to war because that's what we do.

But the fact is, immigrants are here. And we need to make it work, as Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said the other day: "If we want to create laws that are enforceable, we have to make them realistic."

For Roberts, 60, making it work means helping her students learn English, an essential skill in becoming an American.

She's been teaching for 10 years and "each day, I am reminded what we have here in this country, what we take for granted and how we are perceived by the world," she said.

"At the core, we are all people. They have the same worries that we do."

The same dreams, too.

"I want to go to college," said Kievan, 25, a student who came here from Iran two years ago. He works at a hotel and worries that his accent will limit his options in life.

Rithy, 25, of Bellevue, came from Cambodia a year ago and works at a bakery. He wants to be an accountant.

"Here it's democracy," he said. "I like that. My country is mostly Communists. I don't like. I want to study."

But it's tough going.

"I clean everything," said Rosalina, 38, who came from Mexico 13 years ago. "The worst things."

And yet, she said: "I feel lucky."

The truth is, no one in America can claim it for themselves. Should there be a new immigration policy that gives immigrants a chance but also a responsibility to become tax-paying citizens? Absolutely.

Meanwhile, we have to face reality and live together.

The other day, my son's Ultimate Frisbee team played a Seattle public school made up mostly of Nigerian boys and girls wearing headdresses and skirts. They kicked our butts.

Did that make me angry, want them gone? No. The truth is, they made us better.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Wednesday and Sunday.

Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She won't forget the Normandie.