Today we went to the Naturalization Ceremony of 111 new American citizens at Mt. Rushmore in the amphitheater. Starting with the court being called to order, the Ellsworth Air Force Base Honor Guard presented the flags, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, a welcoming address, a speech by a gentleman who was naturalized 21 years ago, the Oath of Allegiance
and
then the Proclamation of Citizenship as the new American citizens were given
their naturalization certificates. At this point, the new citizens could go to
the microphone and state their name and country they were from. Many shared
more, such as “Yesterday I was an Iraqi; Today I am an American!” or My name is
so-and-so and I am an American!”
The
ceremony ended with some more remarks and the singing America the
Beautiful as each new citizen was welcomed to the stage to take a picture by
the American flag with the judge. Not to
be political, but it does make one think of what we who are born American take
for granted.
Among
other countries, people who will go to sleep as American citizens today came
from: Afghanistan, Cameroon, People’s Republic of China, the Congo, EL
Salvador, Ethiopia, Iran, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Poland, Australia, Canada,
Somalia, Viet-Nam.
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2 comments:
Not to be political, but there are a lot of folks down here in the American southwest who should find a way to become American citizens. Or perhaps we should find a better way to HELP them become American citizens.
My family went on a 12 week RV trip this summer and we happened to be at Mount Rushmore on the one day of the year that this ceremony took place. It was amazing to watch the 111 new citizens proclaim to be American. What a beautiful park and a reminder to all Americans not to take their citizenship for granted!
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