Fady Mehkael came from Egypt two and a half years ago. He’s part of a school community service group that serves meals to the poor and people with HIV, and routes food from city Greenmarkets to local soup kitchens and food pantries. “I’m proud of today,” he said. “Black and white, they’re together.”
“Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr., Day,” said Hm Papon, of Bangladesh. “He was fighting for African-Americans’rights.” Added Fady, "Today is the result of the fighting.”
Hm continued, “Right now, we have an African-American president, and in his speech he said, ‘Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, white, black—all the cultures should be one culture, should be the American culture, so the change can come.’”
“For us to make one country, for us to be united, it’s the people who have to do it,” said Dorce. “In order for Obama to help the whole nation, the people have to step in, too.”
“He will do nothing for me, Obama,” countered Stephen Nash, from Panama. “He’s not going to change things in one day, or in one year.”
“I think Obama, he is not dishonest, because he says he wants change,” said Mandognin Bamba, born in Cote d’Ivoire. “Obama, he gives us our hope. My child can be President, if he is born here.” (“Yah, you married, now?” teased one of the boys.)
“You don’t know what will be,” scolded Aissatou Diallo, from Guinea. “You have to give time.”
Time is pressing, though, for these students. Each is on track to graduate in June 2010 – “In’shallah,” Hm shrugged – and paying for college looms large.
“I hope Obama makes big changes in the country, so that when I start in college, I have enough money for my classes,” said Dorce, who aims to become a corporate lawyer.
“The economy is so bad because we are paying for the wars,” said Nash.
“The whole nation is in debt,” said Dorce. “War is money.”
A parting wish
All the other 11th graders had packed up – it was past time for lunch. In parting, Diallo said, “We wish him good luck, because he has the hardest job.”
“Bring peace to the world!” wished Morshad Alam, who hails from Bangladesh. “America can do it.”
“Please, stop the fighting,” said Hm. “God will help you. You can do it.”
“He can do it,” Hm continued to his friends, gently pumping one fist raised head-high. “Yes, we can!”
This article has been corrected. The correct country of origin for Aissatou Diallo is Guinea, and for Hm Papon and Morshad Alam it is Bangladesh. Also, students from 50 countries, not fewer, attend the high school. And there are now 10 schools in the DOE's international network. 1/29/08
