On this day before America goes to the polls, I shared a morning embrace with Chandra Fernando because I love her, and because she’s America to me.
She’s America via Sri Lanka, where she was born 74 years ago. She’s been here for the past half-century, teaching for the American Montessori Society, teaching children around the Baltimore area, some of whom were born here and some who arrived from places such as Israel and Eastern Europe and Mexico, and, yes, Sri Lanka.
Across the years she’s taught thousands of children, and embraced them with infinite patience and tenderness, and raised three children of her own, who turned out merely marvelous: two writers and an attorney.
It’s the great American story, which should touch us now as we prepare to head for the polls.
We’re a nation of immigrants, who bring such energy and such culture, and such music and cuisine and creativity, and such hunger to belong, that they are America’s constant revitalization – even when some political types insist they’re our great national danger.
This is an echo of a less enlightened time, when Jews were routinely slandered, when Italians were described as criminals, when employment signs read, “No Irish need apply.”
Today’s political debates over immigration policies remind us that America’s still a work in progress, and still arguing over who’s a “real” American.
Let them meet Chandra Fernando.
She’s taught our children (including my son, who still adores her though he hasn’t been in Chandra’s classroom for three decades). She’s written two lovely children’s books, “The Little Book of Peace,” and “Peace Begins with Me.” She’s rallied support for desperate, abandoned children around the world.
A few years ago, the Montessori people named her a “Living Legacy.” As we head toward this year’s election, some people would still brand her an immigrant.
I call her an American.
She represents the best of us.
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