...When we got to Faneuil Hall, the ceremony had ended and the new citizens were coming down the stairs in waves. In groups of 5, 10 and 20 they came down from the hall above where flashbulbs recorded the occasion. Ghanans, Indians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Turks, Russians, Chileans, Irish, Pakistanis, Taiwanese, Brazilians. We were seeing the rainbow of the human race flow by us as a stream. They walked from the hall clutching their new certificates of citizenship into the bright sun of a June Boston afternoon. In the very hall where our founders had debated their plans for independence, they had just taken an oath and were now also a part of the same noble experiment. It choked me up. As they walked past and our eyes met, I just smiled at them and said “Congratulations!”, and the new citizens smiled back at me...