May 10 (UPI) -- May 9th, my children and I brought our balls and bikes to the neighborhood park on the perfect spring afternoon. Cotton candy clouds dotted the clear blue sky, the sun shined warmly and a small breeze gracefully shook birch leaves.
The park has an amphitheater. In the summer, it hosts open concerts in the evenings, sometimes families gather for big picnics. I've seen weddings held there, as the park is right behind the town courthouse.
Today, a sea of people covered the amphitheater lawn in concentric semicircles: grandmothers, mothers, grandfathers, fathers, teenagers, little toddlers and babies. They were dressed in translucent, pure white, cotton shawls. It was as if the clouds had come down to earth.
Looking closer, we saw colorful variations under their traditional white shawl. Some wore full white wrap-around dresses and white button down shirts decorated with crosses. Some women wore bright orange, green and yellow dresses under their pure white shawls. Some of the younger boys wore sweatshirts and khakis, an ensemble they completed with their white shawl wrapped around their shoulders.
Together, they raised their voices in prayer and song -- openly carrying out a worship service in the local park.
Later, my son played a pick up basketball game with a few of the boys. They explained that it was "Mother Mary's Birthday." May 9th, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrate the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Lideta Maryam.
I was moved to witness this sight. What a beautiful nation I live in.
Here, in this nation families can openly and safely carry on the traditions, garments, and faith from their home country, and pass them down to their children.
This nation is built on layers and layers of immigrants from around the world, people seeking to raise their families in peace, to pursue opportunity, to live with dignity with their fundamental freedoms and rights safeguarded and honored.
I come from Flushing Queens. Nestled next to the Margret Carmen Green in downtown Flushing is the Bowne House. The unassuming house is the historical site where the Flushing Remonstrance was signed in 1657.
The Remonstrance was a citizen declaration standing up for the freedom of worship and assembly for all, "Jews, Turks, Egyptians," "Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker." Today, the neighborhoods around Parsons Boulevard would make the signers proud.
A Catholic Church, the Free Synagogue of Flushing, the Hindu Temple Society, a Russian Orthodox Church, the Sheik Center of New York and the Muslim Center are just a few of the notable houses of worship that operate side by side. This is the beauty of the nation.
America the Beautiful -- from the white clad Ethiopian Orthodox Christians carrying on the traditions that they carried with them from their home country when they came here to pursue freedom and opportunity, to the Americanized versions of the faiths from the old country, the Free Synagogue and the Baptists, to those who embrace an indigenous faith, and those who choose no faith, this nation is beautiful.
From sea to shining sea, this nation protects the conscience of all people, and allows them to shine and sparkle in their unique color, and seek to live and build a nation befitting the call of our conscience to the best of our ability.
