Letters to the Editor
March 9, 2007



‘Citizenship Ritual May Be Ended'

Our leaders stubbornly fail to deal with illegal immigration and are now apparently flummoxed by the legal kind as well [New York, "Citizenship Ritual May Be Ended," March 2, 2007].

Andrea Quarantillo, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for New York City, would scrap the tradition of new citizens' solemnly taking the oath of citizenship before federal judges.

For the sake of efficiency, or at least bureaucratic convenience, Ms. Quarantillo would replace a dignified and even ennobling ceremony with something like a video game, complete with taped presentations, in which new Americans would, essentially, talk to the wall.

Why stop there? Why not do it online from local Internet cafes? Perhaps age has crept up on me and I am, all-unknowing, well into advanced fogyhood, but I reject Ms. Quarantillo's insulting notion. It is offensive; it devalues citizenship itself as much as does online voting, whose convenience and efficiency appeal to those who value the privilege of citizenship in the greatest nation on earth only if they don't have to get out of bed for it.

I have seen several naturalization ceremonies. In fact they are occasionally covered in newscasts by local television stations. To me and surely to others of immigrant stock — and that is all of us, is it not? — they are wonderful and moving. As they are also, no doubt, for those new citizens who, right hands held high, swell with pride and emotion during what Ms. Quarantillo considers mere bureaucratic routine.

BILL MARSANO
New York, N.Y.


http://www.nysun.com/article/50144