Naturalization Ceremony in the City.

This past month, a (Mexican) friend became a U.S. citizen, and me and my one lawyer friend from Missouri went downtown on a weekday early afternoon to go watch him get sworn in.

At one point, they named all of the countries of the people present, and had the people from those countries stand up when their country was called.

Usually there was just a single person or a handful, but when they said “Mexico”, like a third of the room stood up, and everyone laughed, something that my one lawyer friend from Missouri said that she had just known would happen, when they began calling the names of countries.

Interestingly, the next greatest country was the Philippines, and Poland and South Korea were also decently well represented.

When the judge said “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”, he also paused to say that that was the first time that he had had the honor of swearing in someone from that particular country.

The ceremony was very moving, esp. when they had people abjure obedience to princes and potentates, since it really got to what democracy was all about. 

The part about willingness to serve in the military was a little much, though, and I felt it was out of place.