(Host)
Like a couple renewing their marriage vows, commentator Bill Mares
recently found himself renewing his vow of national allegiance at a
naturalization ceremony in Burlington.
(Mares) Those looking for
relief from the meanness and hatred that afflicts our national debate
over immigration would have found refuge in Courtroom 542 in the Federal
building in Burlington a few weeks ago. I went there to watch a
Pakistani friend and about 30 other people from around the globe, become
Americans.
This monthly naturalization ceremony reminded me of a church service.
It contained a processional, a recessional, music in the form of solos
of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful," the oath of
allegiance, and a speech or homily on democracy by Judge Colleen Brown.
There
was a Color Guard, from the American Legion, representatives of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, various staff members of the US
citizenship and Immigration Service,
and those proud and nervous men and women from Peru, Thailand, Japan,
Korea, Belarus, Burundi, Congo, Canada, United Kingdom, France,
Australia, Russia and Pakistan.
In
her civic homily Judge Brown’s ethnic metaphor for the country was not a
melting pot, or a salad bowl, but the collage. She invited the
immigrants to add their unique texture, color, shape and size to
America’s grand and ever-changing national design.
She noted that the founding principles of freedom of expression and of
religion and freedom from fear of repression carried with them a kindred
duty of respect and toleration for the equal rights of others.
Then
William Fagan the courtroom deputy, bravely walked through the phonetic
forest of these polyglot names. Together, they followed Judge Brown in
the powerful Oath of Allegiance. Solemnly, they declared that they would
"absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign prince potentate, state or sovereignty of whom
or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen… I will support
and defend the Constitution of the United States, that I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same… and that I take this obligation
freely without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me
God."
After that joint oath Fagan called each new American
forth for their certificates of citizenship. As if a liberty bell were
tolling, Fagan spoke the names with the additional all-important adverb:
Kazuko Uchida Jonas, formerly of Japan, Alice Alua Okuka, formerly of
the Congo, Zlato Piplica formerly of Bosnia, As I watched this dignified
ceremony unfold I found myself renewing my own vows to this great,
flawed, diverse, bumbling political experiment called the United States
of America.
And as these new Americans followed the flag into
the hall, they found members of the League of Women voters ready to
register them to vote. As a boost to one’s own patriotism, and cause for
modest New Year’s optimism, this service was worth a thousand national
anthems!