Naturalization

Went to the naturalization ceremony today in US District Court. My friend Manohardeep had to renounce India, and I cried a lot. India is so beautiful, he is such an Indian person, he loves India and his parents, and he is so part of Punjabi culture, it sounded so terribly awful:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I 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…”

There were plenty of people from other nice countries too.

The judge was in love with Kate Smith, a singer from the 40s and 50s, so showed two still shots on the overhead of her with the flag as God Bless America played (and some folks sang along), and again she popped up on the screen with flag singing America the Beautiful. He also showed a movie about Ellis Island so they could see how difficult immigration used to be.

Then a speaker from Egypt, who had naturalized in 1996, told funny stories of silly things he did when he first immmigrated (like paying full price for a car). Then he told the folks to "adopt the American values." He said it 2 or 3 times. That was his message (though he never described these values).

Then the judge told them that their kids would not have the accents they have today; their kids would be fully integrated Americans in the future.

The Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Board of Elections, Altrusa and other groups had representatives that got to stand up to welcome them as citizens and tell about their group's civic activities that they could get involved in.

Then everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance, recieved signed certificates and got to get pics with family members in front of the flag and US Seal.

Things opened and closed with a prayer/benediction, Amen.

Everyone went to another room to eat piles of homemade cookies made by older ladies from the aforementioned organizations. One lady tried to recruit me to be a member of Daughters of the Revolution (DAR) because I had told Sylvia that my great grandfather probably descened from a revolutionary family so she wanted me to get involved.

Cell phones were not allowed in the building; you were supposed to "leave them in your car," so I had to bury mine under the mulch behind a building for a few hours.

It was wierd and interesting, let me tell you.