The Importance of Showing Up

Today I'd like to talk about two examples of people that decided to show up and the affect these people have had and may have in the future. U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (Georgia-R) and Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Two very different cases, but connected none the less.

Congressman Deal is a candidate for the Georgia Gubernatorial race and has recently proposed an end to "Birthright Citizenship", a right given all those born on U.S. soil regardless of the nationality of their parents. This right is given by Section I of Amendment XIV of the Bill of Rights which says,

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

I am far from a scholar of Constitutional Law, but this section seems pretty cut and dry. Still, Deal and his supporters from the Federation for American Immigration Reform argue that the 14th Amendment was not meant to act as a "loophole" for the babies of illegal immigrants to become citizens. Deal wants to close this "loophole" in order to find a solution to the country's immigration problem.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, was nominated today by President Obama to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. As a judge, Sotomayor has been the first hispanic judge in NY State history and she is now the first hispanic woman nominated to the nation's highest court.

Her ruling in 1995 forced Major League Baseball owners to negotiate with MLB union players, saving the "national pastime" from the greed of of its owners. Raised in a housing project in South Bronx, NY Sotomayor earned a Bachelor's Degree from Princeton and her Juris Doctorate from Yale University. She is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, people, who were only considered U.S. citizens as of 1917 (Thanks to the Jones-Shafroth Act).

U.S. Congressman Deal and Judge Sonia Sotomayor are two people who have shown up. Deal is showing up to argue against the privilege of citizenship given immigrants' sons and daughters like Sotomayor. Sotomayor has shown up and broken barriers for others like her who are told because they are a female, Hispanic or come from lower class neighborhoods, that they have to curb their "unrealistic" dreams. 

Deal may never become Governor of Georgia and Sotomayor may never become a Supreme Court Justice, but up to this point they have shown up and could have an affect on the lives of many current and future Americans.

CW