More Reflections On A Naturalization Ceremony

My mind drifted back to the patriotic naturalization ceremony of that close friend of ours I wrote about in Hernando Today on Nov. 29, when later on I heard an audio clip of Michelle Obama in which she said, "For the first time in my adult life I am proud to be an American" - referring to her husband's candidacy for president.
I hadn't thought about this when writing about those emotional moments leading up to our friend taking the oath of citizenship a while back. I then read a rather poignant response to Mrs. Obama's by an immigrant who said: "When I came to the USA at 17, I was proud to be a resident. When I became an American citizen I was even prouder to be an American."
Now that Barrack Obama is president-elect, the whole notion of "love of country" becomes more than an intellectual exercise. Mrs. Obama's attitude is understandable at some level. I lived in Chicago, which, while being known as the "windy city" - given the reputation of its politicians - has also been called the "most segregated city in the United States." This is where she grew up on the south side with its de facto segregation. She is pure Chicago. Barack is not at all. The deep racial anger expressed by the infamous and sometimes profane Rev. Jeremiah Wright probably reflected the attitude of his congregation and the community - and that included Mrs. Obama. (And black politicians keep the race issue on the front burner to get elected.)
There were black immigrants becoming American citizens on the day we were at the ceremony, and it was obvious that they were as proud and joyful as everyone else - and that included people with all shades of color - even our not so white friend. The thought occurred to me that if Mrs. Obama had been an immigrant and had taken the oath of allegiance on that day, she would have been as thrilled as every other black becoming an American. She would not have been carrying all that negative historical baggage that she has as a native born American. How about that! This is more a reflection of what a strange lot of people we Americans are, rather than a reflection on her.
After all, our Declaration of Independence recites that "all men are created equal," that they are "endowed by their creator" with the right of "liberty." So we memorialize this great document by endorsing slavery? Spare me the explanations. And then it takes until Aug. 18, 1920 until suffrage is extended to women? But that is what we've always been - a contradiction - and a work in progress. We should be proud of this. At least Americans try to get it right.
The topic of Mrs. Obama's Princeton senior year thesis was on the racial divide. She said then that "no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my professors are ... I feel ... that I don't really belong." Affirmative action may be partly the cause of this. She will not release her SAT scores. (John Kerry refused to release his military records. Later on it was discovered that they contained his SAT scores, and they were lower than George Bush's.) It could well be that her scores were not equal to the average Princeton freshman. (She did flunk her first Illinois bar exam.) Her older brother, Craig Robinson, a Princeton basketball star, and now coach at Oregon State describes her as very competitive; that she hates to lose. Others say she sometimes displays an "irritating personality." Maybe at some level all this adulation bothers her because she realizes she is not an intellectual superstar - just above average. Yet she went on to Harvard, as did her husband. They clearly are a privileged Ivy League couple.
Obama is clearly different. His patriotism can best be described as insouciant elitism. Take the flap over his refusal to wear the flag pin. He said: "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't ... As we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for ... true patriotism." Yet he later wore it when speaking to working-class voters. Then there's that famous picture of him with Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson and others, all standing facing the flag with hand over heart as the National Anthem was being played - except Obama, standing casually with his hands at his side.
At the naturalization ceremony we attended, all those foreigners had their hand over their heart. It was like reflexive genuflecting before a religious superior.
A commentary in Slate magazine in November 2007 summed up this attitude nicely: "Does anyone else feel the way I do? Glad to be an American ... but conflicted about pins, pledges, flag worshiping and other rituals of compulsory or socially enforced patriotism, like the hand over the heart during the national anthem?" Obama is more a reflection of the liberal left on social issues. More inclined toward the United Nations than the U.S. - internationalism trumps patriotic jingoism; the latter being an embarrassment, just like the U.S. is in the eyes of Europeans.
I was in the military, so maybe that shaped my attitude toward our country. But when I look back at it, I think of my European immigrant father, who tried to enlist in the Navy during World War II, when he was 44 years old. If the price of admittance to he United States would have been to have the American flag tattooed on his chest - much less on a pin - he would have gladly done it.
A lot of folks at that naturalization ceremony we attended might have agreed.