The United States gained 74 new citizens from more than 40 different countries Friday.
“Besides being in a maternity ward, there is nothing more beautiful, moving and hopeful than witnessing a naturalization ceremony,” award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns told the crowd assembled Friday morning on the lawn of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello for the 63rd Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony.
Burns has won acclaim for such historical documentaries as "The Civil War," "The Roosevelts" and "Baseball." But it was the history he had learned from making "Thomas Jefferson" and, more recently, "The American Revolution" that he cited in his keynote address to America’s newest citizens Friday.
This Fourth of July marks the 249th anniversary of America’s independence from Great Britain and its king with the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, authored by Monticello’s owner and architect, Jefferson.
“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” Burns said, quoting Jefferson’s preamble to the Declaration. “Those words turned the world upside down," Burns said.
The world that Jefferson wrote in, the world he wrote for and to, was different than the world we live in today.
"Think about it," Burns invited his audience. "In 1776, kings still ruled in France and Britain. A czarina in St. Petersburg, a sultan in Constantinope, a divinely invested emperor in Beijing and a shogun in Japan."
It was revolutionary, for lack of a better word, that Jefferson and his fellow founding fathers would dare to dream "they might be able to govern themselves."
As the country’s third president, Jefferson advocated for easier access to citizenship. He reduced the number of years a person was required to live in the U.S. in order to establish residency from 14 to 5, lowering the barrier to naturalization.
“I think he understood that an alloy is a combination of different metals that makes a stronger metal and that we are strengthened by the alloy that our immigrant population made,” Burns said.
Many of the newly naturalized got to share their immigration stories at Friday’s ceremony. Olive Ntube Nini Ngalame-Makia, originally from Cameroon, was one of them.
“I wish my father were alive to see this, because who could have told him that his daughter would become a citizen of the greatest country on Earth?” she said with her voice full of emotion.
She said she wept throughout the ceremony, with gratitude to God and her father, who she said pushed her to pursue academics, which was how she was able to immigrate.
She first studied in Sweden and tried to find work in England, but she settled in the U.S. because of the “night-and-day difference” when it came to discrimination. She said she felt very isolated, especially in Sweden, as one of the few Black people at her university.
Once she and her husband moved to the U.S. in 2006 to work toward doctoral degrees, though, she said she was able to find community, and professional opportunities, in the States. She now works remotely as a toxicologist and resides in Waynesboro with her husband and their children, who she feels have greatly benefited from growing up in the U.S. — especially her third child, who has autism. In the States, he has had access to free, specialized education; in Cameroon, that kind of care would likely be unaffordable, she said.
Ngalame-Makia said that now that she has her citizenship, she hopes to sponsor a green card for her mother so she can get permanent resident status, which would allow her to reunite with her in person for the first time in 15 years.
But, the pathway to citizenship has developed more twists and turns since Donald Trump retook the White House earlier this year. His administration — fulfilling a campaign promise to crack down on immigration — as began limiting access and, in some instances, flat out pausing applications.
Trump’s immigration policies were never directly referenced at Friday’s ceremony, but as was the case in Jefferson’s time Washington casts a long shadow over Monticello.
Burns said America stands at a "momentous intersection," but he avoided discussing current events.
“I think we can put the superficiality of the politics of the moment away and understand the deeply symbolic meaning and importance of new citizens,” Burns told the press after delivering his address. “We’ve just been enriched by over 70 new citizens in the United States. Hallelujah.”
Burns did say, though, that his upcoming documentary may add to discussions about the political divisions seen everywhere today.
“The American Revolution,” which has been 10 years in the making, will air in six parts on PBS this November. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello today, contributed resources and expertise in the filmmaking process.
“I hope it contributes to a thoughtful and civil conversation about the complexities of our origin stories, the way we were divided then, as we seem to be now,” Burns said.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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