Published: Monday, December 27, 2010, 9:22 AM Updated: Monday, December 27, 2010, 9:54 AM
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Enough's enough.
There is something instructive -- if painfully so -- when a story about a young woman who has done everything right inspires a few clinically depressed souls to resume braying about the threat to the pearl-white Ozzie & Harriet world in which they grew up. That's why I let the comment stream run its grumpy and predictable course on Sunday. I was encouraged when a number of readers stepped in to note the lapses of memory and fallacies of logic.
Nothing is served, however, by another day of this grousing.
Dan Li is a brilliant, dedicated student. But that's not why one of her teachers introduced her to me and it's not why I wrote about her. Over the last three years, Dan has attended three different high schools and lived in seven different women's shelters ... and the experience has only made her more determined to help those who have even less than she does.
For Dan, the "land of opportunity" has given her the opportunity to volunteer at Kaiser Sunnyside, raise money for earthquake victims in China and Haiti, and reach out to students struggling with the English language.
And for Dan, a Harvard education is not entre into New England high society, but the means to find her way to the poorest corners of the world and help those who may never escape them.
We can argue, I suppose, over whether Oregon universities would offer Dan the same opportunity. We can wonder aloud about why some teenagers wade into the wonder years with a work ethic and why others don't.
But Dan Li's story is far too compelling to be hijacked by the xenophobes in the crowd. And from this point forward, it won't be, at least not on this blog.
Keep up the good fight Steve. Xenophobes are hopefully a dying breed.