Colonial Williamsburg hosts naturalization ceremonies twice a year. The following remarks were delivered by Elisabeth Reiss, wife of the Foundation’s new president, Mitchell Reiss, at a recent ceremony at Williamsburg’s Capitol. Elisabeth Reiss was born in England and became an American citizen in 1998.
I am delighted to welcome you to Colonial Williamsburg and extend my congratulations to all of my fellow citizens.
I would also like to welcome the school children in the audience from our community. It is so important for our young people to see, firsthand, how special this ceremony is, and to appreciate what it means to be an American.
We are gathered together in the Chamber of the House of Burgesses, a very historic and meaningful place.
The debates, discussions and deliberations that took place here, in this very room, more than 2 1/2 centuries ago began to shape the principles of American citizenship and chart the journey for our country.
The House of Burgesses started out British.
But then it became American.
I, for one, can personally relate to the transition.
You see, this is not the first time I have participated in a Naturalization Ceremony.
In 1998, I took the same oath you have just taken, resolving to make this country my home. And by doing so I gained the special rights of American citizenship that were first articulated here.
What I also did that day-as you have done today-was to accept the responsibilities of American citizenship, the responsibilities to help sustain our democracy and to help shape a more perfect union.
America is a country of unparalleled diversity. We are a Nation where everyone, with the exception of Native Americans, has an immigrant as an ancestor, each with their own unique story to tell.
We have turned this unparalleled diversity into unparalleled strength. That strength is reflected in what has taken place here today.
Where people of different backgrounds, of different languages, of different religions and traditions, come together to forge a common bond as Americans.
Pledged to a common set of principles and freedoms.
That is what makes this moment so significant. We Americans are not merely a collection of diverse people.
We are a Nation inspired by a common spirit, the same spirit that energized the debates that took place years ago here in the House of Burgesses.
Your new citizenship binds you to those first Americans, binds you to our Founding Fathers.
Their dreams are now your dreams: to make this great experiment in self-government work, to make it prosper and to make it last.
You will now write the next chapter in America’s ongoing story.
So again, welcome, and congratulations on your new citizenship.
Leave a Reply