From the Archives: Actress Tracey Ullman reflects on citizenship and equality at Monticello

Actress Tracey Ullman reflects on citizenship and equality at Monticello
July 4, 2010 4:28 PM MST

Tracey Ullman at Monticello, July 4, 2010

At the 48th annual Independence Day naturalization ceremony at Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello on July 4, the featured speaker was actress and comedienne Tracey Ullman, who has won seven Emmy Awards® for her work in television. Her self-named Fox-TV show of the 1980s introduced the world interstitially to The Simpsons.

Ullman is a dual British-American citizen. Born and raised in Slough, England, she has lived and worked in the United States for 25 years and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2006.

In her remarks to the 71 immigrants from more than two dozen countries (from Afghanistan and Armenia to Uzbekistan and Vietnam), Ullman emphasized how her early impressions of America were those of “confidence,” that the American attitude was one of “if you want it, come and get it.”

After the ceremony, Ullman sat down for a one-on-one interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner, answering questions about citizenship, the American dream, and what she finds valuable in the American founding.

Subjects and Citizens
Noting that it was recently revealed that, in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote the word “subjects” and smudged it out so he could replace it with “citizens,” Ullman talked about the difference between “subject” and “citizen,” because she has been both.

She said she was pleased to learn about Jefferson’s editing, that “he changed it, that he moved on, that he made the change.”

“Yes,” she said, “I have been a subject and now a citizen and it’s interesting. I just think that we are equal. There’s no one better than us. We’re not paying people millions of pounds to be better than us,” as the British pay their royal family.

“I’ve never been a royalist,” Ullman explained, “and that [equality] is something that really appealed to me about America.”

Image of Confidence

When she was growing up as a girl in England, Ullman absorbed many images of America that she saw on television. What most impressed her, she said, “was the Olympics,” not only because American athletes won so many gold medals, but “it was the confidence,” they exhibited.

In addition, she said, “it was that ‘you can be anyone you want to be’” attitude and “kindness,” as well as “inspirational people like Lily Tomlin. I impersonated her at my school when I was like 10. I said, ‘I want to be Lily Tomlin. I want to be Gilda Radner.’”

Ullman joked that “our images of America were like Dallas, when I was a kid, like soap operas and things” but even so, when she first arrived in the United States at the age of 20, she was “very inspired.”

Citizenship Test
Since Ullman so recently went through the naturalization process, she spoke about the most surprising things she learned as she prepared for the citizenship test.

One was, she laughed, a question about two forms used by the immigration authorities, the N-200 and the N-400. That’s “a real question,” she said, and applicants had to know the difference between those forms. “I think they’ve dropped that one now, it’s a little obscure.”

She was most impressed, however, by the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, which is why, she said, it is so inspiring “to be here, where Thomas Jefferson” lived. He was “so forward thinking,” for his time, Ullman remarked, and that is why she remembers “really being impressed with the words of the Founding Fathers, in particular Thomas Jefferson, who was just so enlightened and so brave and so incredible at that time and still holds up” today.

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on July 4, 2010. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Adnan Barqawi's Speech at the RPV Convention

All the buzz about the RPV convention, aside from general comments about the results of the voting (for those who haven't heard, Bob McDonnell is running for governor, Bill Bolling for lieutenant governor, and Ken Cuccinelli for attorney general), has been about the recent Virginia Tech graduate who gave the final formal speech to the delegates.

Adnan Barqawi became a U.S. citizen on April 17. Last fall, he became commander of the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech. He delivered a strong, heartfelt address on the meaning of citizenship and the values that Americans hold dear. (I liveblogged about his speech -- and the rest of the convention -- yesterday. His comments begin at "3:15 p.m." Or perhaps I should have said "1515" in military time.)

In style and substance, Barqawi outshone keynote speaker Sean Hannity and most of the politicians who crossed the stage on Saturday.

A typical comment on Barqawi's speech comes from Nick Howard at Tertium Quids:

Adnan Barqawi was the final speaker (other than acceptance speeches). Outstanding. Simply outstanding. The best speaker of the convention. I hope his speech is available on YouTube.

Nick's wish is granted. I uploaded video from Adnan Barqawi's speech just a few minutes ago to YouTube. Here it is, in two segments, divided by applause (and there was a lot of it -- the ovation at the end of the speech lasted for more than half a minute).

Part I:


Part II:

Political Brambles wrote of the speech:

This young man was an inspiration to all at the convention and brought the delegates to their feet cheering on three separate occasions. His address was inspirational and motivational. He is a new citizen of the United States and proud to be called an American.

AMCIT wrote on AMCIT's Weblog:

Watch him. Charismatic, good speaker, outstanding message. I had tears in my eyes. The man will go far.

Immediately, he’s about to head for the Mississippi Delta as part of the “Teachers for America” program. With a teacher carrying this message, our students will do well.

If I had an inkling all college students would hear and heed his message, I would never again worry about the future of our country.

If Adnan Barqawi returns to the Old Dominion from Mississippi, he will be a force to reckon with in Virginia politics. His vigorous delivery of what could have been an anodyne speech left the thousands of Republicans in attendance at the RPV convention with a sense of purpose, unity, and pride -- much needed qualities given the electoral losses of the past few years. Could we one day be inaugurating Governor Barqawi on the steps of Mr. Jefferson's Capitol?

Update: The full text of Adnan Barqari's remarks is now available on the Virginia GOP's web site.

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Madeleine Albright and Craig Ferguson on Citizenship

On tonight's edition of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS-TV, the lead guest was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The interview touched several issues, including the potential of Texas secession, Albright's collection of brooches and pins (including a "snake pin" she wore at the United Nations to goad Saddam Hussein), the Secretary's new book (Memo to the President Elect), and one thing that both host and guest have in common:

Both Madeleine Albright (born in what was then Czechoslovakia) and Craig Ferguson (born in Scotland) are naturalized American citizens -- that is, they are Americans by choice (and working to achieve it) rather than by birth.

In the course of their conversation, Dr. Albright mentioned that, on July 4, 2000, she visited Monticello and participated in the annual citizenship ceremonies there. She said that, as she handed out the certificates of citizenship to each of the new Americans, she told them, "Treasure this paper. It's the most important piece of paper you will ever have."

I reported on Albright's visit to Monticello for The Metro Herald, as I have reported on subsequent Independence Day naturalization ceremonies.

Let me make a suggestion to the folks up on Mr. Jefferson's little mountain: Craig Ferguson would be an excellent candidate to speak at the annual July 4th event. He's earned it. He'd also be entertaining, and I'm sure his remarks would be both intelligent and witty.

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Update on the Oklahoma Three

On April 2, I posted some video of citizen activist Paul Jacob, who was being interviewed by WINA-AM radio host Rob Schilling about the initiative process, term limits, the taxpayers' bill of rights (TABOR), and related issues.

During the interview, Paul spoke about how he and two colleagues were being prosecuted in Oklahoma in a blatantly political fashion.

Now there is an update on the "Oklahoma Three" (as they're known) and what they may be facing in the weeks to come.

From the web site "freepauljacob.com" comes this news:

On July 23, the Oklahoma Three—Paul and his two co-defendants, Rick Carpenter and Susan Johnson—will have a preliminary hearing in Oklahoma City. At the hearing, the government must establish enough evidence to convince a judge to schedule a trial.

Theoretically, at least. In reality, it is rare for a judge to dismiss a case at this stage no matter how skimpy the evidence or twisted the logic of the charge.

A number of citizens and groups in Oklahoma, as well as in neighboring states, will be attending the hearing, which begins at 9:00 am on Wednesday, July 23. If you’d like to attend the hearing or events being held the day before, or have any questions about it, please email Brandon Holmes at bholmes@samadamsalliance.org.

Paul has been inspired by how pro-initiative citizens in Oklahoma are working to reform the petition process. During the recent legislative session, Attorney General Drew Edmondson vigorously lobbied Senate Democrats to block a bill to do nothing more than create a task force to study the state’s chained and neutered initiative process. Foes of direct democracy managed to thwart that proposal. But the issue isn’t going away.

According to a 2007 poll, 92% of Oklahomans support the right of citizen initiative. Yet, thanks to adverse court rulings or the sheer difficulty of the petition process, voters have been able to cast ballots on only two of 23 citizen initiatives filed this decade. (See The Oklahoman’s editorial about the hamstringing of the process.)

Now Oklahomans for Initiative Rights is doing what the legislature has refused to do—launching its own citizen task force to study the state’s petition process and make recommendations for reform.

The Attorney General’s assault against the Oklahoma Three is vindictive and outrageous. But it may also spur some much needed change. Stay tuned.

Many Americans who have used the initiative process to achieve justice will be watching these proceedings in Oklahoma to see if the rule of law is maintained, or if citizen activism just becomes another in a long list of crimes imposed by the political class on the rest of us.

Remembrances of Independence Days Past - Part I

Today (July 4, 2008) will see President George W. Bush speaking at Monticello's Independence Day celebration. He is the fourth sitting president to do so, following Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Harry S Truman in 1947, and Gerald R. Ford in the Bicentennial Year of 1976.

Eight years ago, the principal speaker at the ceremony was, like Monticello's builder and first owner, a U.S. Secretary of State. At the swearing in of some six dozen new American citizens, Dr. Madeleine Albright spoke about her own experience as an immigrant to the United States and of the contributions foreign-born Americans have made to our culture and our communities.

I covered the event that year for the Metro Herald in Alexandria. It was my first time visiting Monticello on the Fourth of July and certainly not my last. (Last year I used the new citizen-journalist tool, YouTube, to post video of the event.)

This article appeared in the Metro Herald on July 7, 2000:

ON THE MOUNTAINTOP: A CELEBRATION OF CITIZENSHIP AND FREEDOM
Rick Sincere
Metro Herald Charlottesville Bureau Chief

Atop the “little mountain” he called by its Italian name, Monticello, Thomas Jefferson reflected on life and liberty, wrote thousands of letters, and received many visitors from Virginia and elsewhere.

As the epitaph on his gravestone, Mr. Jefferson chose to be remembered for only three things: that he was the father of the University of Virginia, the author of Virginia’s statute on religious liberty, and the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Jefferson died on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, just after noon in the bedroom that was the center of his life in the home he built at Monticello.

Every year since 1963, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation – which owns and runs Monticello as a monument to the third president – has sponsored a ceremony on the anniversary of American independence and Mr. Jefferson’s death at which immigrants to the United States take the oath of citizenship, forsaking their foreign allegiances to become true Americans.

On July 4, 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was the keynote speaker at a ceremony on the West Lawn of Monticello. Nearly 80 adults from 27 foreign countries took the oath of citizenship, and nine children adopted into American families were given certificates of citizenship.

Secretary Albright, herself an immigrant (from Czechoslovakia) and a naturalized American citizen, welcomed her new compatriots in a brief but impassioned speech.

Speaking of her own arrival in New York Harbor at the age of 11, a refugee from Communist tyranny after previously fleeing Nazi occupation, Albright remembered her doubts and worries. But, she said, “I should not have been worried. At its best, America’s embrace is as vast as this continent is broad. We [her family] were welcomed, given refuge, and provided the chance to make new friends and build new lives in freedom.”

Addressing the concerns of those who fear the aliens among us, Albright reminded us that America is richer for its immigrants. Today, she said, “we see the contributions of immigrants everywhere in the vitality of our neighborhoods, the health of our economy, the strength of our democracy, and the enduring miracle of our unity.”

Gently scolding those xenophobes who would have prevented her and such eminences as Albert Einstein, Mother Frances Cabrini, and Andrew Grove from coming to America and helping to make it great, Albright noted: “There are some who resent all this and think that the day after they entered is the day the door to America should have swung shut. Let us pray that day never comes. For our nation needs the continued refreshment of new sources of energy and strength.”

It would have been impolite to fail to make note of the day’s host, Mr. Jefferson. So Secretary Albright paid tribute to him by saying that “the mind that conceived Monticello’s original design also helped to conceive an approach to government that had never truly been tried before. It was based on a conception of the individual not as a mere subject to the throne, but as a citizen with responsibilities and rights, and tracing all the powers of government back to the will and consent of the people.”

Those principles, Albright added, “fueled a revolution and launched America on its journey from wilderness to greatness – with important milestones of slavery’s abolition and the full enfranchisement of women and minorities along the way.”

Not content to make a speech and then return to her duties in Washington, Secretary Albright stood alongside the new Americans as they were sworn in by Samuel G. Wilson, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. She took the oath of citizenship with them and then greeted each one of them individually, shaking their hands and presenting them with the certificates proving their new nationality.

Also speaking at the ceremony were former Virginia Supreme Court Justice John Charles Thomas, who read the stirring opening section of Mr. Jefferson’s Declaration (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…”), and James H. Michael, Jr., the senior U.S. District Judge, who tried to explain, in a few words, how the day’s ceremony was not the end of a journey for the new citizens, but a beginning. Opening remarks were provided by Daniel P. Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, and the Foundation’s chairman, Benton S. Halsey. The ceremony closed with the Pledge of Allegiance led by local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and the assembly sang the National Anthem, accompanied by the Charlottesville Municipal Band.

All photos by Rick Sincere.

(Special thanks to the Metro Herald's Greg Roscoe for digging up this piece from the newspaper's dusty archives.)

The Citizenship Test

ImNotEmeril has a link to an online citizenship test that asks some of the same questions that immigrants seeking naturalization have to answer. Not surprisingly, he passed with flying colors. Or, as he puts it, "I get to stay."

Me, too.

How well will you do?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Frankly, the questions seemed a bit simplistic. So I have to wonder if the test is an authentic example of what candidates for naturalization actually face.

Don't forget to visit ImNotEmeril if you're thinking about attending the Blogs United conference in Martinsville in August. He notes that registration is open and has a link to the conference web site, Blogs United in Martinsville for Free Speech.

Speaking of naturalization, I'm planning to attend the annual Independence Day ceremony to swear in new citizens at Monticello this morning. I have been to several previous ceremonies -- my first time, in 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was the speaker, and in subsequent years I've heard author Frank McCourt, USA Today founder Al Neuharth, and last year's guest speaker, architect I.M. Pei.

This year's featured speakers are environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. If I'm able to do so, I'll report on the event later today.