Last night my son was accepted into an elite college program

[Drahthaardogs]

My grandfathers were both poor Italian immigrants. One a butcher and one a coal miner. It took three generations, but I feel we have finally "assimilated".

This is what they came to America to do. They knew the dream was not for them. It was for their children and their grandchildren.

This is what makes America great, and this is what Trump would destroy. He wants a caste system, an oligarchy, or a plutocracy. The rich are a jealous lot, and they want to keep what they have and still take more.

This is why we resist!

Bravo I nonni!

[jls4561]

1. Congratulations!

[pandr32]

2. Thank you for this reminder of what we are supposed to be about

Congratulations, too.

[democrank]

3. Congratulations. How proud you must be.

Good luck to your son.

[Gothmog]

4. Mazel Tov

[coti]

5. All the best to you and your family! nt

[Hortensis]

6. That's wonderful, Proud Parent. :) What's his major?

[Drahthaardogs]

12. Software engineering

He loves computer programming and was an honor mention fot a National Merit Scholar.

[Coventina]

7. The GI Bill, the Community College system, and the public State College system are all great

equalizers.

Of course, the elites have been busy trying to dismantle all of those things for that very reason.

[eleny]

8. My grandparents were all dreamers, too

Brother and I were the first to graduate from college. I'm thrilled at your son's success. The success of your whole family. Bask in the glow! Today is a good day because you shared your story.

[DFW]

9. Bravi i nonni, a posto!

My two grandfathers were also from poor backgrounds, so I know where you are coming from.

One was the son of a poor tailor from Charleston, South Carolina, He went north and worked his way through college as a janitor (you could do that in 1912), and eventually became a deputy mayor of New York City. His wife was fired by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia as labor liason for the city, as he considered her too close to labor. The other was the grandson of deadbeat Mississippi riverboat gamblers who fled to New York City to escape their debts. He made it through the depression by escorting the children of more well-off people to school and back. That must have been for dimes a day at the time. He was always a great wit, and that finally landed him a job with a Madison Avenue advertising agency, but that took a few decades. My mom, at 5'2" helped out after the depression by playing stand up bass in a jazz band (I don't know how--standing on soap boxes, maybe?) in the 1940s.

And so now, the baby boomer generation is all past 60, all with oddball professions, one (my brother) even ready to retire, taking his job secrets to the grave (he can't even tell me what he does). Our daughters, now in their thirties, have wildly different professions. One is in the fashion field in New York City, and the other is an attorney in Frankfurt, Germany.

If the Republicans had their way, my grandfathers would have remained poor, uneducated, and at best Vaudeville entertainers. My politically active grandmother would probably been shot at some labor uprising. But my parents grew up in FDR's America, not Trump's America. Our daughters, as half American/half European, consider themselves bi-cultural world citizens, and refuse to let themselves get pinned down, identity-wise. This is as it should be. Not "America First," but "Earth First." Republicans will never understand that, of course.

[malaise]

10. Congrats to the entire family

[lunatica]

11. That's great news!

Congratulations!