Posted on 03/15/2013 7:20:38 AM PDT by Prov1322
The lyrics to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” take on a whole new significance when you hear them sung in Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Korean and Spanish.
“God bless America, my home, sweet home,” was bellowed out proudly by close to 50 people representing more than 20 counties who became naturalized United States citizens during ceremonies in the U.S. District Court in Rome on Thursday.
India led the parade of nations represented by former citizens who are now Americans with seven, followed by South Korea with five and Vietnam with four. Taiwan and Colombia each lost three citizens during Thursday’s ceremony.
Olesya Sypchenko, a native of Russia who has lived in the U.S. for six years, was one of 29 women who took their citizenship oaths in front of U.S. District Court Judge Harold L. Murphy.
“It was hard, very hard,” she said of the decision to renounce her Russian citizenship. “But I want to be helpful for this nation.”
Sypchenko said learning the language and absorbing the American culture and history have all been very difficult. On the other hand, Selva Ferrero, a native of Argentina, has been in the country for 42 years.
“I really felt like I was an American,” Ferrero said. “I was raised American with baseball, football and hot dogs.”
Ferrero, who lives in Alpharetta, is a flight attendant with United Airlines. She said she travels the world but is so happy to finally, officially, call herself an American.
Kelvin Chen Chih Peng is a graduate student at Georgia Tech. He was born in Taiwan but has lived in New Zealand for most of his life. Peng said it was not such a big deal to him to give up his Taiwanese citizenship. Why the decision to become a U.S. citizen?
“Because this is the greatest country in the world,” Peng said.
Ed Hine Jr., a Rome attorney, served as the keynote speaker for the event.
“What a proud day this is, not only for each of you all, but every citizen here whom you have joined,” he said. “The past is not nearly as important as the present. You are now United States citizens, and we welcome you and are glad that you are here.”
Hine reminded the newly naturalized citizens of the importance of the Bill of Rights. He recited each of the initial 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. He said each is critically important to their new rights as citizens.
“We welcome you to this country,” Murphy said. “We all should remember that we are either immigrants or descended from immigrants and we’re privileged to have the freedoms of the Constitution of the United States. It’s not easy but it’s a wonderful life and a wonderful country.”
How in the world did they end up in Rome, GA?
>>How in the world did they end up in Rome, GA?<<
Got lost between Atlanta and Chattanooga...
Nah...they got lost between Trion and Aragon!
We lovingly refer to Rome as "Eastern Alabama"...which the Romans do not care for, but they are in close proximity!
Get out to Oklahoma City sometimes and ask yourself how so many Vietnamese ended up in the middle of the country.
A very strange set of circumstances led to that demographic.
There must be a Federal Courthouse, and they took their oath there. I know I had to travel to Anderson, SC, for my naturalization. Immigration set the location, time and date. I was too happy to care where did I have to go.
IMO, the Vietnamese refugees who came here as boat people probably wanted to locate as far away from the ocean as possible.
Probably the most adaptable & productive immigrant group to have come to America.
Definitely productive, but I keep getting requests to convert all our Oklahoma City business systems into Vietnamese and Spanish.
Not gonna happen.
I think the OKC oddity is more a result of the USAF base and how the US government handled the influx of refugees.
Of course, I had an Indianapolis employee who jumped on a boat at age 11 and didn’t see US land for two years. He was one of those who never wanted to set foot on a boat ever again.
>>Nah...they got lost between Trion and Aragon!
<<
Mapquest, thou art a heatless b!tch (lol)
Proof again that mere technology can never replace the human experience...
I have been to Atlanta a few times but never really experienced it.
In fact, the Chamber of Commerce website is NotAtlanta.org
And the Rome area has intentionally shielded themselves from connecting to Atlanta (which was a plus to us!).
Wrong. Consider history. Americans my age grew up surrounded by family and neighbors who obtained citizenship, but NOT the ability to speak English. Entire neighborhoods displayes store signs in GREEK, HEBREW, CHINESE, ITALIAN and a hundred other languages from foreign lands These people were AMERICANS and were proud of it.
History then shows that the children of these foreign speaking citizens went into the American school system and graduated as Americans, speaking English, loving the country, and eventually taking over the country.
History shows the 1st generation Americans fought and won WWII, many fighting in and/or against the native lands of their parents and grandparents.
This was the OLD America, not the zoo we have today. Let these new citizens speak what they can and will, and observe they have more pride in their new country that all too many of the “native born” idiots.
beautiful small town but I;ve noticed when going there the Indians seem to own many motels and hotels there, of which I might add they never update or do any work tot hem but instead run into the ground
all roads lead to rome...
atleast, that is what i have heard.
teeman
I am stuck in Smyrna, which is way ro close to alanta. I think it is so beauiful up there in Rome, if DH would sell, I’d move in heartbeat.
Hickory, NC has very large Hmong & Romanian communities.
Local churches welcomed refugees and helped them get settled, jobs, language help, studies for citizenship.
It has happened all over the country.
Not sure if this applied to these folks in Rome.
BTW, North Georgia is a nice place to live.
“IMO, the Vietnamese refugees who came here as boat people probably wanted to locate as far away from the ocean as possible.”
http://www.vietnamese-american.org/102802.html
“Tuesday’s establishment of an eight-state shrimp-industry coalition that will seek ways to promote wild-caught Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic shrimp took a historic turn when two Vietnamese-American men were named to sit on its board.
Gary Nguyen, a Lafourche Parish dock owner; and Calvin Nguyen, a New Orleans member of a Vietnamese fishing family; both described their decision to accept seats on the Southern Shrimp Association’s board of directors as a “very big step” for the organization and for themselves.
Inclusion of Vietnamese Americans in a U.S. commercial- fishing trade organization is something fishermen interviewed Tuesday said might have been impossible a decade ago because the history between Asian and Anglo fishermen has been so tainted with instances of discrimination and even violence.
George Barisich, co-chair of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, who has fought battles for years against turtle-excluder devices and other issues important to shrimp fishermen, said he has been trying for years to include Vietnamese voices in his efforts. He said he is pleased that this time those efforts have borne success.
“Right now, the Vietnamese are 45 to 80 percent of the industry in some areas,” Barisich said. “They are a major portion of the U.S. fleet, and up until now they have not been politically involved or helping to fight the battles others have put up, such as turtle-excluder devices. This is an opportunity to open that door.”
They hall have the name Patel too.
The hotel/motel owners that is.
OK, Today’s Vietnamese-Americans aren’t afraid of the sea, got it. It was that reference to OK City that I read.
It was a miracle that as many were able to survive the awful passage as they did. Their biggest enemy was pirates, IIRC. And the U.S. Navy picked up a large number of boat people.
Does anyone recall in 1978 Jane Fonda denounced the boat people for deserting their `socialist paradise’, which got her @ss booted off the California Arts Commission by the liberal CA legislature, no less?
FWIW, I’m a Vietnam vet, I wish success to the Vietnamese-American community, and I will always hate Jane Fonda.
Wonder what the former `boat people’ think of the aging commie hag?
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