You Have Four Hours To Stop Me
This morning I got up very early to watch my tape of American Idol (I missed it last night to attend Progressive Democrats President Rebecca Young’s birthday party), and while looking at my calendar I saw that I was delivering welcoming remarks to new American citizens at the naturalization ceremony in Wilmington this morning at 11:00 a.m. This presents a problem. It is a huge honor, but it has nothing to do with the only two things that I usually talk about: being Insurance Commissioner and running for Lieutenant Governor. So over the backdrop of would-be Kelly Clarksons belting out hits of the ’80s, I scribbled down the following. The speech is in four hours–if you see anything that is going to get me in trouble, send me an e-mail at mattdenn@hotmail.com.
Judge Shannon called me several days ago, and he said something to the effect of “Matt, I know you’re an elected official and I’d like you to welcome 70 new voters to Delaware. Are you around on March 6th?” I said, “let me see if I can free myself up.” It is an honor to be here with you.
There are certain occasions that seem to be magnets for cliché-filled speeches. Weddings, birthday parties, and naturalization ceremonies top the list. I read a few other people’s naturalization ceremony speeches last year, just before the first time I had the honor of speaking at one, and I counted nine references to the American dream, four uses of the phrase “melting pot,” and a few too many invocations of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America.”
So I thought I would do something a little different. You aren’t locked into this citizenship thing yet. I am going to give you some positives and some negatives about being an American, and if you decide after hearing me out that you are not up for this, I am sure Judge Shannon will let you out of the deal.
We sometimes talk a little louder than we should. But often these days we are talking about important things. You are becoming Americans just before what many consider the most important election in generations, where we are being asked to make fundamental choices about what kind of people and what kind of country we want to be. Millions of Americans who have never been part of the political process have been inspired to come out of the woodwork this year to make their voices heard, it is like nothing any of my peers have seen in our lifetimes and it is thrilling. Today you will become part of that discussion and that excitement, and this fall you will help to shape our country’s future.
Another problem with America: we eat too much junk food. But we share it. You are joining a country with a profoundly generous spirit. Time after time, when our brothers and sisters in this country have been in need—even when our government has failed us—we have stepped up to help each other out. New York after 9/11, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the United States has taken some real hits in the last several years, but after each one the love that our citizens have for one another and for their country has shone through. One of the criticisms I have of our country’s leaders is that they don’t recognize the generosity of our citizens, and too rarely call on them to sacrifice for the good of our country. I am sure you have already found this to be the case, but you are joining a people bound together by more than geography.
Some say that we Americans think we are always right. But at least we stand for something and are willing to speak up for what we believe. For better or worse, and I think it is for the better, we Americans don’t like to see injustices go unredressed. Many of the problems that our country has overcome were solved when citizens—not men and women of privilege or title, but citizens like you are about to be—took charge of our country and demanded that a wrong be made right. Workers rights and children’s rights in the early 20th century. An economic safety net in the 1940s. Civil rights in the middle 1960s. These struggles go on today, but America made enormous strides in addressing them because Americans insisted that there were wrongs that needed to be righted.
Finally, we Americans have a habit of annoying people in other countries by telling them that we are the best and we are number one. But we are number one, so what do they want from us?
On balance, I think it’s pretty clear that you have made a very wise choice in deciding to officially become part of our country. And I want to finish up by thanking you for making that choice—and here, I may need to throw in some clichés. But they are repeated so often in part because they are true, and they bear repeating at this time in our country’s history. It is true today, as it has always been, that many of those who love our country the most are those who have come here by choice rather than by birth; that many of those who work the hardest in our country are those who have been drawn here by the fact that hard work bears fruit; and that the diversity of ideas and cultures that has always been one of our country’s strengths is enhanced with each new person who becomes a citizen in this country of immigrants. So on behalf of our state, let me say welcome and thank you for becoming part of these great United States of America.
