The excerpt is from a speech I gave on March 26, 2004, at a Naturalization Ceremony on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale recognizing the culmination of years of effort for many to become U.S. citizens. Naturalization is the process through legal action administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a U.S. citizen if a person was born outside of the United States.
Thank you. It is a great honor to be here today. I am a second-generation American. My parents’ families immigrated to this nation from Albania through Italy on my mother’s side and from Switzerland on my father’s side. Ellis Island was where they stepped onto American soil. I am a mixed breed, part Italian and part Swiss, the son of working people and the grandson of immigrants. I am a child of America. I thank God for it every day. As a second-generation American, I am not too far removed from your experience in this country on the one hand, but on the other hand, I am a world away. Many of you made a conscious, difficult, heart-rending decision to leave one country and come to another. All of you are adopting a new way of life. Mine is often and appropriately claimed as a birthright. But, we often appreciate most what comes at the highest cost. Your burden to obtain the opportunity that America provides is greater than mine. Of this, I am quite sure.
Today, while you celebrate the mindful adoption that we culminate in this ceremony, I celebrate what I frequently forget. I am in your debt for making me aware of what I have, gained so easily, almost unconsciously. A man or woman is born three times. First, we are born of the flesh; on this, we can all agree. Second, we are born of the spirit in our hearts and souls as we understand our relationship to the world around us in ways beyond our explanation. Through faith, grappling with who we are, we come about where we are going and why we are here. And third, which we confirm today, we are born of a country through citizenship. Bonding ourselves to a larger group with whom we sometimes agree, and other times not, is citizenship. We are thus thrice born: flesh, spirit and country. Difficult concepts to deliberate, to be sure, but to pass over them lightly amputates an essential part of our existence.
The great United States, as we know, began with immigrants hundreds and even thousands of years ago. From continents long since divided by time and geology, from Asia, from Europe, from Central and South America, from Africa, India, the Middle East and every corner of the globe, you – we – come. A significant challenge for all of you will be to simultaneously maintain your spiritual, ethnic and cultural traditions, and simultaneously become something new. Be careful as you go. America is often referred to as a melting pot, and that it is, but the description falls short. We are rooted in unity so our distinctiveness in varied traditions and cultures can be celebrated and bring strength, not weakness. This is an American exceptional perspective. Run towards it, not away from it. Become an American never forgetting who you are, what you were, what you left behind or put aside and to what you aspire. This is the third birth. This is the greatness of our nation. While we are one, we are different by the freedom our nation provides for personal beliefs, perspectives, insights, wisdom and growth. You came, as did countless before you, with hope for a better way of life. You are prepared to participate by thinking, voting and working, but most importantly, by desiring. Aspiration is the fuel of the American engine: the product of freedom carried on the back of opportunity. You bring, as did my ancestors, fears, joys, dreams and the yearning for opportunity. Opportunity is at the very heart of the conception of our nation, and it is never solely a birthright. Opportunity prepares the foundation for individuals, families, villages and communities to seek higher ground, to let aspirations guide dreams and for dreams to become reality. To be free. And, as you are empowered by the third birth, seize the opportunity to grow and become something more than you are, more than you were born into.
As new citizens, you have many new rights which carry with them considerable responsibilities. The right to seek a better life through education has long brought many to our shores. Citizenship granted here today and the quest for knowledge require us to consciously change. When you decided to become a citizen of this great nation, you reached for opportunity. No guarantees, but a chance. Not a property right, but an aspiration. Not a gift, but a level ground on which to grow. This is the joy and the burden of American Citizenship. This is what inspires me to love my nation.
Education and citizenship in a free society work together so effectively that it is nearly impossible to separate a good education from the very process of American life. Both support the other. They are sympathetic and symbiotic. Opportunity is the catalyst and the motor for change. And shame on any of us to squander even the slightest bit of opportunity for intellectual, spiritual or moral growth.
All of you have seized the opportunity. I know because you are here today. Look around, you are seekers. It benefits all when the paths to these great experiences are kept accessible to all who come calling. Our door should always be open. It is who all of you and me are; we are seekers. Exploitation of the opportunity of citizenship is not for the weak of heart or spirit. Initiative and hard work are both the incentive and the price.
These experiences are to be cherished and remembered as we tell our stories to our children and grandchildren. We are born not once, not twice, but three times. We are the same, yet different. We desire the opportunity to grow and change. We hold our past, traditions, families and cultures in the highest regard. We are many, but we are one. To all of you today who take such a bold and courageous stand to become Americans, I thank you for the moment of reflection you have provided me, and I remind you that I am in your debt, not you in mine. You make me mindful of what I otherwise forget or take for granted.
I was born into what you have worked hard to acquire, and I am humbled and in awe of it, and of you. Congratulations on this momentous accomplishment.
May God bless each of you, and may God bless America.
Walter V. Wendler, President of West Texas A&M University. His weekly columns, with hyperlinks, are available at https://walterwendler.com/.
