On Monday, Patriots Day, a year after the terror bombings, an American won the Boston Marathon for the first time since 1983. His name is Meb Keflezighi. Meb Keflezghi? Was I the only person to do a double take? Does he sound American to you? So I did some digging: birth certificate (long form), called Ed Snowden in Moscow, Wikipedia. His full name is Mebrahtom Keflezighi, and it’s pronounced: mebrāhtōm kifl'igzī. Seriously. I’m surprised they let him within 26 miles of Boston, where they still call John A. Kelley, who ran 61 marathons, won two and has a statue on the course, an “Irishman.”

The last “Bostonian” I remember running Boston was my determined friend John Mason, Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court and a direct descendant of John Adams. When I couldn’t find his name in the next day’s Boston Globe, I accused him of not finishing. I should have known better. He just didn’t cross the line until after all the reporters had gone home. That’s Boston – and that was John, who fared less well in his race with cancer 10 years ago.

Meb Keflezghi was born in Asmara, Eritrea, from which his family fled in 1987. He was an All-American at UCLA and became an American citizen after graduation. In these times, when defining an American is so contentious, it’s inspiring that a man named Meb Keflezighi won America's oldest race. And I know no one is cheering more loudly than John Mason, who believed passionately in both America and the American Dream.