Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Adnan Barqawi explains what it means to be an American.

One of the convention highlights was Adnan Barqawi. He is a recent Virginia Tech Graduate who was a part of the Cadet Corp. He and his family immigrated from Kuwait when he was 17, and he explained to the convention how he fell in love with this country, and what it means to be an American and live the American dream.
"I do not call myself an Arab-American or a Middle Eastern-American, but an American. Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over, but when the whole man has come over heart, and thought and all the hyphen drops of its own weight."
Please listen to this truly inspirational young man. It will brighten your day.





He was such a popular speaker that a group has already popped up for him on facebook that already almost has 200 members. This young man has a bright future ahead of him. Thank you Adnan for reminding the convention what it means to be an American and the importance of personal responsibility.

1 comment:

Nerdette said...

Our Gen J club watched this speech on Tuesday... I'm so glad someone posted it, seeing as I missed all the excitement (well, not ALL the excitement... kids cooped up in a hotel room are pretty exciting. Haha..).But AWESOME speech. Loved Ken's too. Of course. :-)