I went with someone to a swearing-in ceremony for new U.S. Citizens this past week. Fifteen people from 13 countries took the oath. I sat back and observed.
Quite a study in contrasts. What I found most interesting in people watching were two young men who were both active duty Air Force. The one from Brazil looked sharp…, military bearing, Class A dress uniform, knife creases in the pants, and shoes like glass. At least a dozen other Airmen were there in the audience to support their buddy. I never got to shake his hand as everyone else wanted to do so as well.
The other Airman was from Haiti; he wore his DCU’s or whatever they call them these days. Slouchy, slovenly, sneery, gangsta-actin’ kid with an obvious bad attitude who pretended to be beyond bored with the whole thing. Only one other kid came with him and was white version of same.
A young man from India gave a short speech on behalf of the new citizens, a tradition at that particular court. Once more, this fellow was very nicely dressed in a suit and tie, erect bearing, and not only spoke English well but delivered a very eloquent speech on what citizenship meant to him and did it like a professional.
What also amused me was the middle-aged lady immigrant from Peru named O'Leary.
Instructions to the new citizens were to dress appropriately. Only two people wore jeans…both the Mexicans. The younger guy dressed up with a collared shirt and nice shoes, was clean shaven, and spoke English just fine. The older guy was unshaven, had on a not-so-clean old hooded sweatshirt and dirty boots, and I think he was the one who the bailiff had to tell to take his hat off in the courtroom. He must have spoken enough English to have passed the citizenship exam, but if he did he sure hid it well.
Everybody was given a booklet copy of the Constitution and a Citizen’s Guidebook thingie. It was very interesting to watch the family and friends in the audience, thumbing minutely through these documents with great interest. I wonder how many were seeing it for the first time?
The person I went with said natural-born Americans should have to take a test and an oath at 18 or 21. I agreed. The oath included the “protect and defend the Constitution” phrase just like the military/government oath.
As far as I was concerned, all the security Marshals at the Federal courthouse should have had to read the Constitution as well, and re-take their oath. What really got me was the “No Cameras or Recording Devices Allowed in the Courthouse.” Almost seems like they have something to hide. What, they only want their version of what transpired coming out of Federal court?
Just my observations. Worth what ya paid for ‘em.
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I have always thought that every kid that joins the military should be provoided with a copy of the Constitution. We make them swear to defend it, how many have read it? That would atleast put it in the hands of a few Americans.
It's nice to hear that most of the folks gettting sworn-in took it seriously.
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