New Americans Inspire Us To Do Better

With all of the petty bickering, games, negative campaigns and seeming inability to get anything real done, it’s pretty easy to get grouchy about the American political system.
Need a pick-me-up? All you have to do is attend a ceremony during which people from dozens of different countries take the oath of allegiance to the United States to become naturalized citizens.
What a gust of fresh air. On Constitution Day, also known as September 17, some 111 people from 52 countries pledged their loyalty to the United States in a ceremony at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in Mount Pleasant. Pinckney (1757-1824), a former South Carolina governor, was one of four of South Carolina’s signers of the U.S. Constitution.
Some 300 others witnessed as U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel administered the oath to these new Americans, several of whom held small American flags in their hands.
Marine Lance Cpl. Tung Vi Lam, a native of Vietnam, said becoming a U.S. citizen on Tuesday was his rebirth.
“I’ll start off all over again,” said the 20-year-old who came to the country nine years ago. Today, he’s serving at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
Another active duty member of the military who took the oath was Senior Airman Alvaro Koo, a 24-year-old native of Panama serving at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter. He said he was proud to be an American.
“Now I’m actually part of the country I’m serving,” he said.
Tuesday’s ceremony was a dream come true for Liliana Gonzalez Lindsay, a native of Argentina.
“I feel so emotional,” she said. “I’ve wished for this for a long time.”
What was inspiring during the ceremony was the palpable sense that these new citizens — some 5,000 of whom are sworn in throughout the Palmetto State ever year — are refreshing our democracy. There’s a sense that the country’s values of being a beacon of liberty still shines throughout a world that may trample on individual freedoms. It may sound hokey, but the tent on the grounds of the home of a framer of a constitution seemed to burst with hope for a better tomorrow.
Gergel captured this sentiment during remarks before administering the oath when he shared how his four grandparents became U.S. citizens, two of whom pledged allegiance to the United States in the very courtroom in which he now practices.
“I know that each of you made the courageous decision to leave your native land and to come to America in hope for a better life for yourselves and future generations of your family,” Gergel said. “My four grandparents made the same choice nearly 100 years ago, leaving behind their native Poland and Russia and beloved family members.
“My mother’s parents, Samuel and Rebecca Friedman, were so proud of their American citizenship that they hung their framed citizenship certificates, nearly identical to the one you will receive today, in their living room.”
Today, those certificates hang on a wall in Gergel’s office in the federal courthouse in Charleston.
“While my grandparents passionately loved this country and all the opportunity it provided to them, I am confident that they never imagined that their grandson would one day be nominated as a federal judge by the President of the United States and himself conduct naturalization ceremonies like the ones in which they had participated.”
You could hear a pin drop.
At the end of his remarks, Gergel summed up three words then repeated by many in the audience — “Only in America.”
When things get tough and rancorous at the Statehouse or U.S. Capital, our leaders should be inspired by the stories of the thousands of people still coming to America to become citizens and the millions who want to come here.
The people who became new Americans this month don’t take their new freedoms for granted. They worked hard to get them. And that’s something that all of us born here should remember more often than we usually do now.
 
Andy Brack is publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.