Sweet Tea: The Beautiful

Happy 4th of July! Today I’m grateful for all the natural beauty our country has to share, and for my favorite Very American Things: pickup trucks and garbage disposals.

FIRST-GENERATION AMERICANS ARE WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

(Photo Illustration: Marcie LaCerte for the AJC | Source: Arvin Temkar / AJC)

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about America’s 250th birthday.

Patriotism can be a highly performative exercise these days. When all that matters is the volume and vigor of your devotion, we’re discouraged from thoughtful reflection on what it means to actually love the place where you live, and the people who live there with you.

Then I opened this photo essay by AJC photographer Arvin Temkar (who’s also an extremely lovely writer). He talked to first-generation Americans about what it means for their family to have started anew in the U.S.

Temkar captured each person in traditional dress, posing near a spot in Atlanta that holds meaning for them. The result is stunning.

• 🍉 “Americans come in all kinds of colors, creeds, the way they dress, the way they talk,” he said. “I think that’s the beauty of America.” — musician Faris “Phay” Mousa, whose father is a Palestinian refugee. (In his song “US,” Mousa says of his immigrant parents: “They came to the U.S. so they could be proud of US.”)
• ☘️ “There is something so wonderful about being here and living a very different story than my ancestors, but still doing something very similar to what they once did.” — Aisling Mahony, daughter of an Irish father
• 🍁 “My parents taught us to cherish the freedoms that America offered since they grew up knowing what life was like without these freedoms of speech, assembly, or voting rights.” — Sameera Fazili, whose parents fled their native Kashmir

🪷 And, Arvin Temkar himself, who is and half-Filipino, half-Indian American:

“Ultimately home, to me, is America: as a place and as a concept. Our history is complicated and sometimes tragic, but at its best, it is a testament to the qualities that inspired my parents and other immigrants to leave their homes to make a new one.”

🇺🇸 Read the whole piece here. It’s OK if little eagles fly out of your ears and you start to hear the strains of John Philip Sousa. That’s just the extra American pride.

ONCE YOU GO PEACHTREE, YOU JUST KEEP GOING

Former AJC sports writer Mike Knobler ran the Peachtree, and it changed everything. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Cleveland)

Congratulations to all the Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Racers! Eat a banana. Take a well-earned nap.

Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race is the largest 10k in the world and, one could argue, the fastest-moving July 4th parade ever.

For one former AJC sports writer, the Peachtree finish line was just the beginning.

• Mike Knobler completed his first PRR in 2003. He was a “self-described nonathlete and fat slob,” and the accomplishment made him “so incredibly happy” he simply kept running. Not literally. He hopefully had a banana first.
• More than 20 years later, Knobler has run a marathon in all 50 states and is now pursuing an even bigger dream: 26 marathons in 26 countries in 26 weeks.