Quote of the Day

From someone who should know. . .

This is Mrs. Ly Chho, born of Chinese parents in Cambodia, raised and schooled in Taiwan, naturalized American citizen for fourteen years, and new NRA member, along with her husband who couldn't make it with her to the NRA press conference yesterday evening because he had to work late.


Unfortunately, Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox were a bit late arriving, so the TV cameras left in the middle of their announcement in order to make the 6:30 news deadline, but (unsurprisingly) the NRA has officially endorsed McCain/Palin.

But that's not, precisely, what this post is about.

After the announcement, Wayne and Chris took comments from the audience - mostly white people over the age of 40 (mostly well over) from what I could see - but this diminutive asian woman stood to ask her question and was recognized.

She asked, as best I can recall:

I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid. I believe he is going to win the election. Do you have any plans in place if this happens?

Wayne LaPierre responded that we all have the blood of the patriots who threw the tea into Boston Harbor and stood on the bridge at Lexington and Concord in our veins (metaphorically speaking), and that the NRA would never rest, yada, yada, yada.

But that was a powerful statement from Mrs. Chho. I caught up to her to ask her about herself so that I could write this post. At the moment, the Chho's do not own a firearm, but they are planning to get one as soon as they've gone through some NRA basic training. Mrs. Chho explained that she was educated in Taiwan, and had studied the U.S. Constitution, and had chosen to come to America and become a citizen because of that document. She loves and respects what America is, and Obama frightens her deeply.

And she should know.

Thank you, Mrs. Chho. You are another example of someone who is an American because she thinks she's an American. It doesn't matter what her ancestry is, or where she was born or where she was educated. She's an American, and was one long before she made her citizenship oath.

Damned straight I'm a believer in American Exceptionalism.