Community Commentary:

I am a naturalized citizen and registered independent voter. I came to the U.S. as a legal resident and was issued an “alien registration green card” in London after complying with all the legal requirements, i.e. an intense medical examination at my expense, to prove I was bringing no communicable diseases into the U.S., an equally extensive examination of my education and my personal and my financial records.

I was also required to have a U.S. sponsor — a U.S. citizen who would sign an affidavit of responsibility for me. I was advised that as a legal alien, I was not entitled to any social service or voting privileges.

I left the U.K. before I was old enough to vote and came as a legal immigrant to the U.S. After I had lived here for about 10 years, I became naturalized.

I have now carried an American passport longer than I carried my U.K. passport, and the only elections in which I have been privileged to vote are here in the country of my nationalization, the United States. Never, before Sept. 12, when I joined the protest march on Washington, D.C., had I ever considered myself a political activist, nor had I attended a political event. When I first heard of the march, I knew I had to go, because never before in my American life have I ever been afraid for America.

I went to Washington to be counted, to stand with others who I knew felt as I did, to make our dissent known, to have our voices heard. I booked my flight and hotel without any understanding of where I was to go and what to expect. I had arranged to stay at a hotel near the airport, I flew in the night before the march and planned to leave the evening after the march.

My hotel, it turned out, was in Crystal City, Va., of which I had never heard. As I arrived at the hotel by shuttle from the airport, I saw bus after bus after bus pulling into the circle of one big chain hotel after another. Hundreds and hundreds of people were arriving, and the buses sported signs, “Don’t tread on me. Can you hear me now? Keep your hands off my health care!”