Achieving Democracy Requires Effort
Nob Hill was a parking lot. What had I expected? Nearly 1,700 people were about to be sworn in as new U.S. citizens at the Masonic Auditorium, and most of them had family and friends who weren’t going to miss this day for anything.
I was one of those friends.
After living, working and paying taxes in San Francisco since 1983, my pal Angelo - a native of Sicily - had decided to “absolutely and entirely renounce any foreign prince, state or sovereignty to which (he) might once have been subject.”
Scouring the throngs for Angelo and the rest of his swearing-in party in the lobby of Masonic, my heart skipped at the sight of so many colors of skin and eyes, so many shapes and sizes of noses, so many turbans, burnooses, saris and barong Tagalogs.
And the music of so many languages! Russian, Farsi, Tagalog, Ilocano, French, Spanish, Vietnamese, German, Cantonese, Mandarin, Czech, Italian - with myriad more varieties of accented English.
Many people, especially the elderly, were solemn, looking as if they were headed to the formal signing of a peace treaty. Others were as joyful as they might be at their own wedding or a baby’s first birthday. Friends and relatives snapped pictures, aimed video cameras, carried bouquets and waved miniature American flags.
The sight of the little flags made my throat feel as if I’d just swallowed a whole peach.
Inside the dimly lit auditorium - I could spot Angelo and his entourage nowhere - I listened as Maria Navarro, the congressional liaison for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, welcomed everyone and informed them that some 1,500 other people had been sworn in that morning in Masonic.
For more than a year, the local INS has been processing its way through what was once a backlog of about 120,000 applications for citizenship. The story is similar nationwide. The staff of the 49-county San Francisco regional office has been increased from 45 people to 190. Next month, the INS here plans to interview an all-time high 31,000 applicants for citizenship and hopes to get to “the point of currency” by September.
Angelo had to wait 14 months after he applied to be sworn in. He used some of the time to study a list of facts about U.S. history and government that the INS said he would be tested on.
Like most of the applicants, Angelo took the homework seriously. In a couple of weeks, he knew more about our country than all his born-in-theUSA pals put together. At his INS interview several months later, however, he was asked only three questions: What are the colors of the U.S. flag? How many stars are in it? Who is the current president of the United States?
He asked the interviewer: “Don’t you want to ask me about any of the amendments?”
The interviewer laughed and said: OK, tell me about three.
Angelo picked three of his favorites: the 13th Amendment, which freed the slaves, the 19th, which gave women the right to vote, and the 21st, which repealed Prohibition. (Hey, the man’s Italian.)
The INS also provided a copy of the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Angelo didn’t need them at the swearing-in ceremony.
A sweet-voiced Novato High School student named Laura Travis performed the song solo. Four of her schoolmates presented the American and California flags. In black judicial robes, U.S. District Judge emeritus Owen Woodruff, the U.S. magistrate, did the actual swearing in.
If all of this sounds spare and lifeless, it shouldn’t. There was a simplicity and practicality about the ceremony, to be sure. (And a great keynote speech by Victor Marquez of La Raza Central Legal.)
But there was something else.
When all 1,672 people rose in their seats and raised their right hands to take the oath of allegiance, the auditorium came alive with a collective, dignified enthusiasm that shimmered with hope and commitment.
That night at dinner, when I finally caught up with Angelo and the others, I asked him why he’d done it. He is hardly a sentimental sap who is prone to vicarious patriotism. Why had he gone to the trouble? “All these years, even paying taxes, I feel almost an irresponsibility,” said Angelo. “I feel like I was stealing something because I was not totally involved with the democratic process.
“I know my vote will be just the vote of one little person, but that’s what the government is: all these little people, trying to be something together that’s big and noble.
“Democracy just doesn’t come from the sky. You have to work, perform your civic duty. Otherwise, it is left to a few sharks to say what you can and cannot do.”
For the first time in as long as I could remember, a profound love for my country stirred inside me.
xxxx