The Preamble to the Constitution
of the USA

... 0f the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America.

IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT.

After hearing that the state of Florida has considered  letting a Muslim woman have her picture on her drivers license taken with her face covered, I believe this is even more appropriate. Decision is still in the courts.

                          Read on, please!

This is an Editorial written by an American citizen,
published in a Tampa Newspaper. He did quite a job;

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma School officials remove "God Bless America" signs from schools in fear that someone might be offended.

Channel 12 News in Long Island, New York, orders flags removed from the newsroom and red, white, and blue ribbons removed from the lapels of reporters. Why? Management did not want to appear biased and felt that our nations flag might give the appearance that "they lean one way or another".

Berkeley, California bans U.S. Flags from being displayed on city fire trucks because they didn't want to offend anyone in the community.

In an "act of tolerance" the head of the public library at Florida Gulf Coast University ordered all "Proud to be an American" signs removed so as to not offend international students.

I am tired of these people worrying about whether we are offending some individuals or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans and Canadians. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against  immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely composed of descendants of immigrants.  However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.  As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own  language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.  We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language! Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language! "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some  Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God  offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture. If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like  Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, our  land, and our lifestyle.  Our FirstAmendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion and the   opportunity to do so. But, once  you are done complaining,whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage  you to take advantage of one other great American freedom,

THE
RIGHT TO LEAVE !!

Barry Loudermilk
If you agree, pass this onto other American!! It is time to take a stand!

"On October 28th 1963, I became an American citizen."

Prior to that on April 1959, I  arrived in the U.S. from the country of Panama with a  resident visa obtained at the U.S. Embassy, a Panamanian Passport, chest x-ray and Doctor's report on my state of health.

I was issued a green card after filling out forms, having my picture taken and being fingerprinted.  From then on every January, I reported to a U.S. postal office and filled out their IBM card.  The TV stations as a public service,  would remind green card holders to  fill out  the card at the beginning of each year. This way the government would keep a check on me.

Exactly five years later, I  applied for Citizenship.
After I  applied, I was mailed some pamphlets and a list of questions that I might be asked at the interview. During the many days prior to the meeting I would question my co-workers and they would question me.  We all learned much about the U.S. 

I was told to report to the Post Office in Trenton N.J. and to bring two witnesses who had known me throughout the period I had resided in the U.S. The three of us rode the bus downtown to the P.O. My witnesses were asked in first and after having been interviewed they came out, told me everything was OK and that they were returning to work.

Now it was my turn.  Inside the office sat a gentleman.  He indicated where I should sit and introduced himself.  No smile, very serious, he started asking me questions about myself and in doing so made me realize he knew much  about me and my life in Panama.  I was very nervous. I desired so much to be an American.   I remember that the typing in another room made for very bad acoustics. 

He told me he would ask me 10 questions about the U.S.  The first one was asking the birth of the United States.   I answered July 4, 1776.  Then he asked several more which I answered.   Then he asked me what the 19th amendment was.  I drew a blank.  Finally he was finished with the questions, and  I said, "that was Woman's Right to Vote, right?".  He was surprised that I was still thinking about the question I couldn't answer.  I was right!  I asked him if I had passed and I got the first smile out of him.  But he didn't answer.

The whole purpose of the interview was to protect me!  He tested my knowledge of the English language, for my protection!   My knowledge of knowing the law and how it protects me and how it protects those already living here!

Several days later I received a phone call to confirm a date for being sworn in as a U.S. citizen!  I would have been sworn in on July 3rd, but due to a mix up and my subsequent move to Florida it had to be postponed to October.  But then I had my brother and family to join me on this wonderful occasion.  My brother had already become a citizen several years before me after having served in the U.S. Army.   His flag had 48 stars and mine had the 50 stars...Hawaii and Alaska had joined the Union.

I for one do not question the strengthening of Immigration Laws.  I have the privilege of being a Naturalized Citizen of the United States of America.  All it gave me was the right to vote and to serve jury duty.  But what a very large responsibility and privilege that is.

I speak English and I trust in God.   Having traveled in other countries, I am always happy to get home safely in the land that gives me so much freedom.

I am proud to be an American!

Doris

THE OATH
before becoming citizens of the U.S. of America...

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.
So help me God.

Ellis Island where many Americans today can find their roots.
It was closed in 1954. I came in through Pier 6 in NY and my Brother through Miami Airport in the late 1950's.

An American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually
a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a
reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.  So I just thought I
would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when
they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish,
Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Mexican, African, Indian,
Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage,
Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as native
Americans (including Hawaiian).

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.  In
fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only
difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them
chooses.  An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he
will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming
to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence,
which recognizes the God given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of
happiness.

An American is generous.  Americans have helped out just about every other
nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by
the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to
enable the people to win back their country.  As of the morning of September 11,
Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. The best products, the best books, the best music, the best food.

Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor,the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.

These in fact are the people who built America.  Some of them were working
in the Twin Towers in the morning of September 11, earning a better life for
their families. I've been told that the people in the Towers were from at least 30, and maybe many more, other countries,
cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the
terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did.  So did General
Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the
history of the world.  But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself.

Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They
are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom.  Everyone who holds to
that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

So look around you.You may find more Americans in your land than you
thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old,ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble soo many lands. 
Then those lands, too,will join the community of free and prosperous nations.
And America will welcome them!

Pass this around the World!

Just for being Americans ...
                 BY DAVE BARRY
          written after the September 11th Terrorist Attack
        

No humor column today. I don't want to write it, and you don't want to read it.

No words of wisdom, either. I wish I were wise enough to say something that would help make sense of this horror, something that would help ease the unimaginable pain of the victims' loved ones, but I'm not that wise. I'm barely capable of thinking. Like many others, I've spent the hours since Tuesday morning staring at the television screen, sometimes crying, sometimes furious, but mostly just stunned.

What I can't get out of my mind is the fact that they used our own planes. I grew up in the Cold War, when we always pictured the threat as coming in the form of missiles -- sleek, efficient death machines, unmanned, hurtling over the North Pole from far away. But what came, instead, were our own commercial airliners, big friendly flying buses coming from Newark and Boston with innocent people on board. Red, white and blue planes, with "United" and "American" written on the side. The planes you've flown in and I've flown in. That's what they used to attack us. They were able to do it in part because our airport security is pathetic. But mainly they were able to do it because we are an open and trusting society that simply is not set up to cope with evil men, right here among us, who want to kill as many Americans as they can.

That's what's so hard to comprehend: They want us to die just for being Americans. They don't care which Americans die: military Americans, civilian Americans, young Americans, old Americans. Baby Americans. They don't care. To them, we're all mortal enemies. The truth is that most Americans, until Tuesday, were only dimly aware of their existence, and posed no threat to them. But that doesn't matter to them; all that matters is that we're Americans. And so they used our own planes to kill us.

And then their supporters celebrated in the streets.

I'm not naive about my country. My country is definitely not always right; my country has at times been terribly wrong. But I know this about Americans: We don't set out to kill innocent people. We don't cheer when innocent people die.

A DECENT PEOPLE

The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people.

And now we are a traumatized people. The TV commentators keep saying that the attacks have awakened a "sleeping giant." And I guess we do look like a giant, to the rest of the world. But when I look around, I don't see a giant: I see millions of individuals -- the resilient and caring citizens of New York and Washington; the incredibly brave firefighters, police officers and rescue workers risking their lives in the dust and flames; the politicians standing on the steps of the Capitol and singing an off-key rendition of God Bless America that,

corny as it was, had me weeping; the reporters and photographers who have not slept, and will not sleep, as long as there is news to report; the people in my community, and communities across America, lining up to give blood, wishing they could do more.

A GOOD COUNTRY

No, I don't see a giant. What I see is Americans. We may have the power of a giant, but we also have the heart of a good and generous people, and we will get through this. We will grieve for our dead, and tend to our wounded, and repair the damage, and tighten our security, and put our planes back in the air. Eventually most of us, the ones lucky enough not to have lost somebody, will resume our lives. Some day, our country will track down the rest of the monsters behind this, and make them pay, and I suppose that will make most of us feel a little better. But revenge and hatred won't be why we'll go on. We'll go on because we know this is a good country, a country worth keeping.

Those who would destroy it only make us see more clearly how precious it is.

Dave Barry is a humor columnist for the Miami Herald. His column appears in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Our Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to my Flag,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
     one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
October 11, 1892

I pledge allegiance to the
Flag of the United States,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
     one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 14, 1923

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
     one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 14, 1924

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
June 14, 1954  
        

In the last few days our Pledge of Allegiance has come under fire.'God Bless America' and 'America the Beautiful' will be next for sure, and while use of the first and second stanzas of the Star Spangled Banner will still be permissible, we will be precluded from straying into the third verse. And currency beware, you will probably be next! 
Our children in school are being taught by parents to defy customs used in schools for years and in doing so to defy authority.  Do you wonder that children today pick up guns and kill other kids?
We were taught to stand up to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Children from other countries, in our school,
just stood quietly until the pledge was finished.   Could not those that are not Americans or do not believe just stand and not say the words?  That is what people use to do.  Show respect for other people's beliefs,  mot  be rude and make a Federal case out of it.  Which is exactly what Madeleine Murray (O'Hare) did back in the 50's and what we are hearing in our news today. 
I would think our Justice system has better things to do than sit there and undo wording our Nation has used  for many years.

Doris

THE FACES OF AMERICA!