This year, like every other year since my first Thanksgiving as an immigrant, I’ll express gratitude for being a part of this incredible American experiment. And this time, I will sit at the Thanksgiving table as an American citizen for the first time.
I am profoundly grateful to be an American, and becoming a citizen of this great nation is one of the highest honors of my life. I chose to do so because I truly love this country and what it stands for, and that appreciation has only grown since I moved here in 2017. I’ve been in love with America ever since I was a child, but experiencing this country long-term—as my home—has helped me appreciate its uniqueness, the concrete impact of its founding values, and has reminded me of why so many people like me wish to call the U.S. their home.
But I’ve also experienced what this country can become when it deviates from its founding promise of freedom and the protection of individual rights. I lived through the authoritarianism of the COVID-19 pandemic (practiced by both Democratic and Republican leaders), the storming of the Capitol, speech policing by the government, the maligning of immigrants in the context of a chaotic border, political violence leading to murder attempts on a president and assassinations of political leaders, and currently the disregard of the rule of law in immigration enforcement, among other things. Much of that I never thought I’d witness or see repeated in America.
I became an American at a particularly challenging time for immigrants. We’ve all seen footage of ICE raids and the violent detentions that ensue (even American citizens are getting ensnared, per ProPublica). There’s ongoing vilification and scapegoating of immigrants, and the federal government is even reviving old slogans used by the KKK to advertise its immigration agenda, among other evils (many of which I’ve written about in these pages).
I’ve been asked a few times why I chose to become an American at this juncture—after witnessing the decline of our institutions, freedom and values at the hands of leaders across the political spectrum.
I still chose to become an American because I know that what’s been happening in many realms in this country is not what America is about. I know that forcing businesses to close, as happened during the pandemic, is not the essence of America, but a betrayal of it. I know that cracking down on freedom of speech and having masked agents roaming the streets is anathema to our core values. So much of what’s been happening in this country is at the antipodes of American founding values. Philosophically and at its core, America is none of these evils. Every attack on freedom and individual rights that we see in our country (now and historically) is not a consequence of American founding values, but of the deviation from them.
When I sit at the Thanksgiving table, my gratitude will be mixed with profound concern. But I am not quitting on America when the going gets tough. I want my country to honor its founding principles. I want our government to protect people’s rights, abide by the Constitution, let people trade values freely and peacefully, treat them with justice, and respect due process.
Part of loving America means pushing it to be better and to live up to its promise. When you care about someone, and that someone is essentially good, you don’t nod along to their bad behavior. You speak up and challenge them, and push them to better themselves— particularly if their behavior affects you. Those who truly love America will always denounce its deviations from its pledge of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not sit idly by while bad actors destroy that vow. In fact, an essential part of America’s promise is our constitutionally protected rights to speak out against evils committed in its name. We’d all do well in exercising those rights— it’s a key way of keeping the American experiment alive.
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley once said something I largely agree with: “Even on our worst day, we’re blessed to live in America.” This is true and we shouldn’t take it for granted. But that doesn’t mean we sit at home and merely thank the universe for being here while politicians and others destroy everything this country stands for. If we do that, pretty soon we won’t have anything to be grateful for.
You may not agree with me that everything I mentioned is profoundly evil and a betrayal of American values. But I hope you agree with me that we should want better for this country, and push for it to honor its essence as a haven of freedom and individual rights.
That’s why, this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to join me in gratitude for our country and its promise, while still demanding better of our government and our fellow Americans who have turned their backs on the freedom it was founded on. Loving this country demands appreciating it for what’s good, denouncing what’s evil, and pushing it to improve.
Agustina Vergara Cid is the author of the Substack “From Her Beacon Hand” and a Young Voices contributor. You can follow her on X @agustinavcid