Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, our weekly column in which writers share a literary treasure that all of us should commit to heart. This week, as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, former presidential candidate and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley looks back to Calvin Coolidge’s speech on the 150th. His words, she writes, give voice to the same enduring principles her Indian immigrant parents instilled in her—and that too many Americans today are in danger of forgetting.
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No surprise, my mom wanted to go out with a bang.
She passed away exactly one year ago—on July 4, 2025. She loved this country. So did my dad, who died a year before her. They almost lived to see America reach 250 years. No one would have celebrated harder.
My parents weren’t born here. They grew up in India, where they led lives of privilege: Mom lived in a large house, in a respected family, where everything was taken care of, while Dad came from a similar background and was well educated, a rarity back then. But they lacked something far more important: freedom. As a woman, Mom was able to earn a law degree, but she was prohibited from fulfilling her dream of becoming a judge. That was a level too high for women in India at the time.
So, in 1964, three years after their wedding, they moved to Canada, where my father accepted a doctoral scholarship at the University of British Columbia. Five years later, they relocated to the only country where they could truly realize their dreams.
My parents made their home in rural South Carolina, started a family, and worked hard to make a new life for themselves. Mom was a social studies teacher, and Dad was a college professor—but as the only Indian family in town, we faced adversity and discrimination. When my parents tried to find a home, no one would rent to them—and when they were finally able to buy a place, there were strings attached: They weren’t allowed to have alcohol; they couldn’t host black people; and they had to give the previous owner the right to buy the house back if they ever sold it.
