Toward the end of this year, I anticipate an embrace which most people here were born into — that of Uncle Sam’s and Lady Liberty’s arms of American citizenship. I will finally be a member of their family and have a seat at the dinner table, rather than a be nice guy they like who they rent out one of their guest rooms to.
In the past two years or so in college, I began to see my own politicization unfold naturally as a result of the alerting political stimuli that we have all been subjected to recently, and some that serves of particular interest to me being a man of color and a Mexican immigrant. I am sure everyone saw themselves become politicized (or become apolitical) toward all of this. Police brutality against African-Americans and the riots and protests that result from it, terrorist attacks worldwide, gun violence in America and a controversial presidential race with a questionable outcome are all things that have risen a political comment or 10 out of most people.
The following excerpt from the 1995 movie “The American President” that offered assistance into putting American citizenship into perspective as I began to get involved in this country’s politics. It has helped me as a student involved with local political action, as a citizen-to-be, and I believe it can send a lot of current citizens back to American reality.
“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad, ’cause it’s going to put up a fight. It’s going to say, ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.’ You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.”
I have experienced the likes of what citizenship consists of, and they are infuriating or frustrating enough that they could send many willful immigrants back to their native countries in defeat. I have voiced my opinions on American matters only to be told to go back to my country since “I don’t like it here.” I attended an NC State Student Senate meeting about Resolution 60 several months ago, which pertained to undocumented students here on campus. It was there that I heard a certain politically outspoken student say reprimandable and awful things I plainly disagreed with.
I felt something seething, a force that pulsated excruciatingly through me that urged me, shook me with the will to speak when I heard those things, all fueled by the desire to bring reform for the benefit of this nation. This feeling was not my need to be right or confirm some preconceived notion I had, but rather it was a feeling that Americans have had in history and had taken great actions because of it.
It was then that I was brought back to that quote mentioned earlier.
“This isn’t easy,” I thought.
I realized that being an American was no easy job or safe haven. It meant brandishing rights laid down in eternal textual power in the Constitution at all times whether they are easy or not, and future citizens need to reach the choice of accepting this and current citizens need to be slapped across the face if they have forgotten it.
While many so-called patriots will tout their allegiance to this country, they will quickly convict me as un-American for supporting protesting and rioting for civil rights in whatever colorful form it comes. They forget that this is America, that they will get offended and they should accept it and respect my right to do so instead of telling me go back where I came from.
The feelings that ran through me and the millions of words that rushed through my head in that Student Senate meeting were special. It was American citizenship, in a spiritual sense. It is what propels me on the path to exercising my constitutional rights for the betterment of this nation because I love it. I will not go back anywhere because I am ready to take part.
I am ready to become a citizen.
