Pastor Bo WagnerThis time of year never fails to put a spring in my step and a smile on my face. July Fourth, to me, is one of the happiest times of the year. I am an avid student of history, and the story of how this great country came into being and quickly became the envy of the world is simply amazing to me. To see the freedom and opportunity it still offers to all makes me utterly grateful to be a citizen of this land.
I say this as an American and as an odd minority.
I was born in Florida in 1970, arrived in North Carolina two weeks later, grew up a Tarheel, and I am one-quarter Lebanese, one-quarter French and one-half Puerto Rican. This odd mixture generally results in my being regarded as a blue-eyed hillbilly with a perfect tan year-round.
But if one were to name my “people group,” what would a Lebanese/French/Puerto Rican be called? I am, after all of these years of pondering, almost settled on “Lefrican.” My only conundrum now is pronunciation. Should my people name rhyme with Leprechaun, or should it have a smoother flow, with the emphasis on the first syllable, and sound more like “Leffrikin”?
One thing of which I am fairly certain is that my “people group” is very small indeed; I, like Louis L’Amour’s Joe Makatozi, am probably the last of my breed.