One immigrant shares how important it is to vote!
When I immigrated to the United States, towards the end of the twentieth century, I came from England on a green card. In other words, I was not a citizen but was allowed to live and work here. However, I was not allowed to vote. This was really tough for me, as I had always been politically active. I worked for the Labour Party in England, after having studied politics at the London School of Economics. I supported two Members of Parliament. I knew that I would have to apply for citizenship. So, I started the process for myself and my daughter, who by now was in her twenties. Unfortunately, at this time my son was living abroad, having gained a scholarship. So, he did not take part in this process with us. I had hoped he would be able to do this on his return.
It was a long process, and took us a year of going through lots of paperwork before my daughter and I were asked to attend a meeting in Houston (we were living in Denver at the time) where we would go through the process to gain our citizenship.
The big day finally arrived, and my daughter and I drove to Houston to attend the meeting. There was a large number of immigrants/applicants attending. Each one of us was interviewed separately.
My interview was somewhat strange. The interviewer was an older lady who was not very friendly….so I decided to be as helpful and cooperative as I could. I was ready to answer all kinds of questions about American Government and present and past Presidents. I will never forget the first question I was asked: “Will you bear arms for the United States of America?” I had to quickly get myself together and replied “of course” …. What else could I say? After that, things went smoothly, and, unlike many others there trying to get their citizenship, I did not have a problem with the language! (except for my accent!)
The ones who were accepted (including myself and my daughter), were brought into a huge hall. There we were addressed by the local politician, congratulated, and told we were now US Citizens…. we all had to kneel and pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States. Shortly afterwards, I was able to get a US Passport! And I could finally vote!!
She has been working since then to register other voters - especially young voters.