My Jamaican friend Tamara has just become naturalized after serving ten years in this country and working on her green card.

When I heard what she had to do to achieve the status as a naturalized citizen, I ask myself, “Well, we all ask myself if we all had to do this in order to vote, to have all of the freedoms we have? Would we, first of all, even go to the trouble and secondly, to the expense would, if we had to do this, would we be better citizens? Would we be more involved, informed voters? Would we appreciate our freedoms more?”

And yes, I don’t believe that we should have to take a test, but I wish we all did speak more about the fact that freedom has not been free, which we get. But a lot of people have paid a lot of prices to be free. That’s what freedom, that’s what democracy means to me.