When I was in 4th grade and again when I was in high school I had classmates ask me how old I was when my parents came to the States. After watching Supergirl where the public knows aliens live on Earth, some who look mostly human and some who look AS human as we do, I wrote my story, roughly in the context of that show.
“I'm sorry it's just, the last time I was here that this was so foreign to me was taken as evidence that I was an extraterrestrial...not just a foreigner to the United States...or just a weird American citizen. Believing I was an extraterrestrial they thought I must have superpowers, a unique metabolism, physiology or something. The kept asking me where my home planet was, how old I was when I came to Earth and if I'd landed in the USA or somewhere else. While I will never count myself a typical American, that doesn't mean I wasn't a native born citizen of EARTH. Only someone from another planet could have been so unfamiliar with__ could have lived so unlike anything they thought was normal. Well as far as they cared. If it wasn't' for an agent named Jeremiah Danvers I...”
“I'm sorry what did you say?” Lena Luthor asked me.
“The original Hank Henshaw had conscripted a scientist named Jeremiah Danvers. He broke me out of the D.E.O. last time I was here. If not for him I would have rotted and most likely died...never meeting Supergirl or J'onn. Worse yet, never living the life abroad I have lived that tells me the difference between culture of origin and PLANET of origin.”
“You're pretty dispassionate about it all.” Lena said in a particularly dispassionate voice.
“When I was in 4th grade and again when I was in high school I had classmates ask me how old I was when my parents came to the states. My grandparents were born in the United States. I have never considered myself a typical American. I am quite familiar with my lack of conformity being seen as a lack of native origin. But to assume I was born on another planet instead of just another continent was a blindness I was NOT prepared for. And you know the name.” Lena looked up at me surprised and intent. “You don't know Jeremiah...no one could. But his name means something to you....more than even the name of the original Hank Henshaw.”
“Danvers.” Lena said shakily. “I know someone with that name. I...Kara Danvers is a close friend of mine. Are you saying you knew her father?”
“I'm saying that J'onn J'onzz assumed the identity of his, attacker for lack of another word. When I saw him I thought he was Hank Henshaw...the commander who took me in and treated me like an extra-terrestrial alien instead of simply a terrestrial foreigner. I'm saying a man named Jeremiah Danvers made it tolerable and gave me hope for humanity...that maybe people like HIM instead of like Henshaw might win out. If your friend Kara is descendant from this man...please ask her to come see me. I want to see someone who bears his likeness...no matter how near or far the apple fell.”
“I get the feeling there is more to it than that.”
“Jeremiah deserves to live on, to be remembered. No matter if it is accepted I must let people know. Jeremiah Danvers was a GOOD man. __ Is Kara?”
“Kara is the closest thing to a best friend I've ever had. And she is the most...she is a good person yes. I've never known anyone with a stronger moral compass than her. And from what you tell me, the apple really doesn't fall that far from the tree.”
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