This past week has seen America in the global spotlight.  Our 250th birthday, the World Cup of Soccer, and the Supreme Court addressed birthright citizenship.

I was hoping to see better coverage of the Sail4th 250 that took place in New York Harbor, with particular attention to the Italian training vessel Amerigo Vespucci.  Some forty nations sent tall ships to the event including countries I never expected like Poland, Romania, and Peru, all of those vessels used to teach naval cadet “the ropes” of seamanship.  But I expected the Vespucci to be of special interest to American viewers.  Not only is it the most distinctive and attractive with its double white striping but its name goes right to the roots of the celebration: the U.S. of A!  It was a teaching moment for the masses about our connection to an Italian explorer.  And on its way up the Hudson River, it passed under the Verrazzano Bridge–our other explorer.  If a picture is worth 1,000 words, that would be it—but I couldn’t find one.

Another point of excitement would be cheering on the Italian soccer team in the current World Cup competition, but Italy didn’t qualify this year.  If the nation failed, its offspring didn’t.  Argentina’s Lionel Messi proudly bears an Italian name and has already led his team to four victories over Algeria, Austria, Jordan, and Cape Verde.   The 39-year-old Messi has achieved the most goals in World Cup history and the first player to score in seven consecutive World Cup games.  Argentina and Messi are on a roll.  And so is Team USA, coached by an Italic professional.

His name is Mauricio Pochettino and he also hails from Argentina where his immigrant parents settled from the Piedmont Region of Italy.  He is now the winningest head coach in U.S. Men’s National Team history at the World Cup with victories over Paraguay, Australia, and Bosnia thus far.  A Messi-Pochettino final would be the next best thing to having Italy at the World Cup. 

Yet, a dark cloud lessened U.S. chances when one of its star players received a Red Card for fouling an opponent in the Bosnia match and was controversially banned from tonight’s game against Belgium.  None other than President Trump interceded with an appeal to FIFA president Gianni Infantino the Swiss-born Italic overseer of the World Cup.  The ban has been lifted and fair play restored.

In this past week’s more serious news, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship as expressed in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.  The vote was not unanimous, with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito dissenting.  It was Justice Samuel Alito who wrote that the Amendment does not support automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens or “birth tourism.”  He further warned that birthright citizenship could produce “grotesque results.”  Evidence already abounds of pregnant Chinese visiting the U.S. territories of Saipan and Guam to give birth, as no entry visa is required there.  According to Dr. Geoffrey Fraiche, an OB/GYN on Saipan, “It’s a status symbol for many of the moms. They want their children to go to American universities.”  He said American citizenship is so prized by the class-climbing parents some have risked the life of their unborn child for it.  The conservative Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) estimates birth tourism produces 33,000 “Americans” annually. That an Italic justice is taking a stand should be no surprise; the Romans invented citizenship.

I used to believe that my own father was an “anchor” baby, born in Brooklyn to non-citizen Italians in 1912 who returned to Italy two years later.  However, with the explosion of ancestry documents online, I recently discovered that my grandfather became a citizen in 1909—so rest assured, I’m totally legit! 

Which brings me back to the 250th celebration.  One Founding Father made all the difference in the vote for independence.  We should all know the story of Caesar Rodney leaving his sickbed in Delaware to clinch the vote in 1776.  Pull back the curtain and find that Rodney was a descendant of the Caesar Adelmare family of Treviso, Italy, immigrants to England and then to the colonies.

Our story in America has many more curtains to be opened. –JLM