New Citizens Celebrate Freedom

In business suits, saris and checked sundresses, 84 people from 27 countries stood on the steps of Monticello on Tuesday and became United States citizens.

The new Americans who took the oath of citizenship during the annual Independence Day ceremony at Thomas Jefferson’s home included a Bolivian fisherman, an educator from Pakistan and a Chinese biologist.

At another naturalization ceremony at Freedom Park in Arlington, Va., 50 people from 40 countries were sworn in as citizens.

Elsewhere around the country there were parades, picnics, games and, of course, fireworks to mark the anniversary of America’s independence.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who spoke at the Charlottesville ceremony, recalled her own excitement on sailing into New York in 1948 at the age of 11 after fleeing Kremlin rule.

“It never occurred to me that I would be secretary of State and have Thomas Jefferson’s job,” the Czech-born Albright told the crowd of about 1,500.

To whoops from hundreds of onlookers and a roll of drums from a band playing national themes, she joined them in pledging allegiance to the United States, “absolutely and entirely . . . without any mental reservation.”

The celebrations took place in stifling heat on a hilltop overlooking the sweeping landscape of Virginia, at the elegant mansion of Jefferson, America’s third president and first secretary of State.

“As we gather here, on this historic property, amidst the bunting and the flags, I’m reminded of a day more than 50 years ago, when I first arrived in the United States,” she said in a speech before greeting each of the new citizens from countries that also included Iran, China and Russia.

In cloudy Seattle, people were in jackets, carrying umbrellas.

“Generally, summer doesn’t usually start around here until July 12,” said Kirsten Willman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“It was like 85 last week, but you can’t let the weather get you down around here,” said Kevin Jackson, 35, of Seattle, who was at Gas Works Park with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

Across the country in Boston, a small group of Hawaiians mourned the loss of their islands’ independence. Blowing conch shell horns, about two dozen Native Hawaiians and their supporters gathered where American colonists threw British tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest colonial rule. The Hawaiians threw garlands of the Hawaiian plant ti--pronounced “tea”--into the harbor.

The group hoped to draw attention to the United States’ 1893 takeover of the Hawaiian Islands.

“It will take a little while for people to understand our situation in Hawaii, but it’s got to start somewhere,” said activist John “Butch” Kekahu.

In Irving, Texas, every house in the University Hills neighborhood had at least one flag on its lawn after neighbors pitched in to buy 1,000 flags. The neighbors’ efforts reward the longtime ritual of Nell Anne Hunt, who for years has planted her own flags in as many neighbors’ yards as she can.

“We are so lucky to be born in this country at this time in history,” said Hunt, who last year planted 450 flags by herself on neighbors’ lawns. “It’s good to remember that, at least on the Fourth of July.”

Back at Monticello, the citizenship ceremony was the final step in a lengthy naturalization process.

“This is very special. All my other encounters have been in dingy offices with gruff immigration officers,” said Zohra Siddiqui, 58, as she looked across the manicured lawn of the Jefferson estate.

Siddiqui, a former boys’ school principal, said she came to the United States from Pakistan eight years ago to be closer to her son and daughter.

Kannan Selvaratnam, 30, was looking for acceptance and peace.

“Today is extraordinary,” said Selvaratnam, who fled Sri Lanka in 1983 when ethnic fighting destroyed his village. Selvaratnam, who works at a New York advertising agency, said his family scattered to different countries for safety.

It’s difficult being exiled from a place where you have so many emotional ties, he said.

“But this means we really can triumph one day,” he said, a small American flag poking from his coat pocket.

Albright was the first secretary of State to deliver the annual address at Monticello, where Jefferson built the home of his dreams, filled it with his inventions and kept hundreds of slaves whose freedom he said he believed in but granted in only seven cases, five of them on his death 174 years ago.

She told reporters at a reception afterward of her “awe” of Jefferson, seen as a genius and the man most associated with U.S. ideals set out in the preamble to the 1776 Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“I always do truly think about the fact that I have Thomas Jefferson’s job. That is the part that always undoes me because it is so hard to comprehend,” said Albright, who became a citizen in her second year at college in Denver in 1957.

“I wanted so much to be an American,” she said.

Albright noted that the United States had been “enriched by the steady flow of mind and muscle, culture and creativity” of immigrants from around the world.