| U.S. still a melting pot |
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| Written by By PETER KUEBECK Sentinel Staff Writer | ||||
| Saturday, 11 December 2010 08:20 | ||||
His work with the corporation would later lead him to Aberdeen, Scotland, and, 12 years ago, brought him to Findlay, Ohio, where he, his wife, Vera, and their three children currently live, and where he works as a business development manager for the company. Friday morning, he and his wife were among 34 people from 18 countries - representing every continent except Antarctica and Australia - to be welcomed as new United States citizens at a naturalization ceremony in the atrium of the Wood County District Public Library. The event was held by the United States District Court Northern District of Ohio Western Division. "We've been here 12 years and this kind of completes the jigsaw in a way," Snelling said. He noted that with citizenship granted to himself and his wife, they can now apply for their children, who are still minors, to become citizens. The ceremony was presided over by federal judge Jack Zouhary, who early in his remarks offered welcomes in the native tongues of the soon-to-be citizens. "We wish all of you" new citizens, he said later, "as our Constitution says, 'every blessing of liberty.'" After administering the Oath of Allegiance, Zouhary pointed out to the citizens that his parents themselves were naturalized, though they each arrived in the United Stated at differing times and by different modes of travel. "But both had the same first sight of America - of New York Harbor" and the Statue of Liberty. Advising the new citizens to take advantage of opportunities for service, he also encouraged them to embrace democratic ideals while still continuing their own cultures and traditions. "Our patchwork heritage is our strength," he said of America. "Your accents are beautiful notes to the founding American chorus," he said later. In his remarks, State Rep. Randy Gardner noted that while the new citizens hailed from countries with populations both much larger and much smaller than that of the United States, and represented "many cultures, languages, degrees of wealth and education," among other characteristics, each of them nevertheless had come to the United States to pursue the American dream. Nestor Rodriguez and his wife Edith, who live in Findlay, came to American a decade ago from their native Venezuela. Nestor came for work as an engineer.
"I'm very moved and excited," said Edith. "And I'm glad for my daughter. Now she has the right to be a citizen." Bashar Sayed, originally from Lebanon, came to the United States in 2001 to pursue his education at the University of Toledo, and holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering. He has worked for Phillips Electronics for four years, and married his wife, Nicole, five years ago. The pair, who live in Sylvania, have a daughter, Yara, 2, whose birthday was also Friday. Sayed said he was "just grateful to be here," and reiterated words mentioned by Zouhary earlier about being exposed to such a degree of opportunity in the United States. Prior to the event, Mufutan Saka, Toledo, said he was attending for his friend Nafiu Badru, a fellow native of Nigeria, who was naturalized at the ceremony. Saka, who came to this country in 1991, and was naturalized a decade later, said of American citizenship, "not everybody's that lucky. It's not for everybody." "You have to work for it. You have to be a good citizen, law-abiding. A lot of things come with it." Snelling took note of the fact that, out of the 34 people newly-made citizens Friday, only five came from Europe. "It was truly a multinational setting," he said, and that sort of melting pot is what the United States is. |
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| Last Updated on Saturday, 11 December 2010 09:36 |
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