So yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity and of course the responsibilities of being a United States citizen. It was a remarkable day, the one that will go down in my life as a memorable one.
The date itself will give it away as the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventeenth year of the new millennium (7/7/17).
We had a total of 160 individuals from over 49 different countries around the world. What a joy it was for us new Americans.
I know we all appreciated this opportunity without thoughts of taking it for granted. Millions if not billions of people around the world would love the opportunity to come to this great country and not to mention being citizens so that they can work and have their voices heard as well. And that is something that not very many people have elsewhere on our planet.
Ghanaian-American! |
Nonetheless, it is a lot of responsibilities for all one hundred plus of us who are now officially a part of the American experiment, I mean the democracy. I know it's beyond an experiment since it has been around for almost two and a half centuries. There has never been anything like this in our world.
Indeed, there are challenges here too just like many other countries around the world but as a new American, it is up to me and many others to do our part to keep this experiment in fruition.
Just in case you were wondering, I will not totally forfeit my natural born citizenship from Ghana since Ghana is one of the countries with dual citizenship for Ghanaians who are willing to do so since 2001 and I am willing.
To the ceremony, if I could get up to the podium yesterday to speak, I would have been happy to mention to my fellow new American that, we shouldn't ask what our new country can do for us but what we can contribute to our new country besides paying our taxes to uncle Sam of course. To you historians out there, yes it an excerpt of the inaugural speech by the late John F. Kennedy whose 100th birthday we just celebrated last month or so. That speech is timeless and it is one of the reasons why I have personally decided I would be an American so I can contribute my quota to this great nation. Too many people think abusing the system in America is the only way to sustain livelihood, they are wrong. We must desist from that and do our best to keep building America to a much greater heights. That is the American way and I know most of us the new American understood that granted where we came from. If anything, we won't be a part of the small minority with that kind of mentality. So help us God to see and treat America differently.
Thank you for all your support and keep being awesome you all out there. God bless!
Yours Pal, Ron
The New American :)
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