{"id":2508,"date":"2026-07-05T06:59:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2026-07-05T06:59:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:59:52","slug":"matt-usa-250","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/?p=2508","title":{"rendered":"Matt: USA 250"},"content":{"rendered":"

This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant\u2019s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it is certainly not equal, but it still is one of a kind \u2014 the only place where an absolute stranger with a funny name and a funny accent with no friends or contacts can show up, work hard and actually get to do what he was destined to do. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

In most places in the world, outsiders like me don\u2019t have that chance. That simple truth is what makes America so special. A chance \u2013 to be somebody even if you are nobody. America is a state of mind and I have opted-in!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I feel lucky to have been born here, and if I hadn\u2019t been, I think I would have gotten here as fast as I could. I\u2019m grateful to the public schools that educated me, the teachers<\/a> who pushed me, the internet that freed my mind, and the culture of risk and innovation in technology that invested a million dollars<\/a> in a 21-year-old dropout kid trying to build a company<\/a> around (but not replacing) an Open Source project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unimaginable that these things could have happened someplace else, but it would have been a long shot.<\/p>\n

On the lighter side, SNL\u2019s Washington\u2019s Dream skit is one of their best ever<\/a>, Google has a pretty funny commercial reimagining the Declaration being written<\/a>, and another famous Matthew (McConaughey) gives a great 2-minute speech<\/a>. \u201cWe need skeptics. Yes, we do. We do not need cynics. One cares enough to question, which we should, and the other one\u2019s already quit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant\u2019s heart it is a belief \u0645\u0632\u06cc\u062f \u067e\u0691\u06be\u06cc\u06ba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailurdu.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}