Rebirth of a nation: New Americans sworn in at Columbia ceremony

In a ceremony Thursday at the Columbia federal courthouse, 26 new Americans from 13 different countries were sworn in as naturalized citizens before a crowd that included nearly all the state’s federal judges and University of South Carolina powerhouse women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley.

The 65-minute event was a bit of good news in a world otherwise full of controversy as America gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday, a profession of hope that these new citizens will hold high the same torch of democracy that energized the founding generation.

“It is not the armies or invaders from without that will undo us, it is the collapse of respect for the rule of law, the very foundation of our liberty, which could destroy us,” U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon told the about-to-be new Americans, quoting Abraham Lincoln, as she urged them to dedicate themselves to upholding essential pillars of our way of life.

I hope our new citizens will talk about the rule of law at your kitchen table with your family as you tell them about what makes America great, and how there was a just and fair path to citizenship,” Lydon said.

“The rule of law has never defended itself. It never will. We must all do our part,” she said. “We will always have to defend the rule of law.

“And as you take the oath, you become the newest guardians of our democracy and our way of life,” Lydon said.

One new citizen, Elena Maria Vitale, 25, from Italy, said she was moved during the ceremony, surrounded as she was by people from 12 other nations.

“I got very emotional, to see how I’m not alone in this journey, that other people have come a long way too, with their dreams and their hopes, and I hope myself to make my dreams and hopes come true,” Vitale said.

“For the first time, I’ll be a citizen for the Fourth of July, for the 250th anniversary, and that’s great,” Vitale said with a pleased smile.

‘A country of immigrants’

Judge Richard Gergel, who presented the citizenship papers to each new American, told the crowd, “The United States is a country of immigrants. Except for our native Americans, all Americans descended from persons born in foreign countries.

‘’A persuasive argument can be made the genius of this country is from its ability to receive and welcome new and able citizens from other countries and other cultures,” said Gergel. “A defining characteristic of America is a history of tolerance, recognizing and respecting the cultural and religious differences of our citizens.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy Cain told the crowd, “None of this works if you don’t have a free press and the First Amendment.”

The ceremony took place in a courtroom on the fourth floor of the Matthew Perry federal courthouse near the governor’s mansion in downtown Columbia. Nearly 100 people filled the chamber; others watched from overflow rooms in the courthouse.

The 13 countries the new citizens came from included Mexico, Colombia, Moldova, Laos, Brazil, Ukraine, Belarus, South Korea, Australia, Sudan, Vietnam and Italy.

Becoming a naturalized citizen can take three to five years. An applicant also has to pass English proficiency and civics tests. In the most recent 12-month period, some 818,000 people were naturalized around the county.

Besides Staley, those in the courtroom crowd included Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott and S.C. Teacher of the year Corey Bedenbaugh of Batesburg-Leesville Middle School, Columbia’s First Baptist Church senior pastor Wes Church and the Judge Joe Anderson’s Sunday school class at a local Methodist church and school children from Irmo Elementary, who sang “My Country tis of Thee.” Christina Harding, a recent University of South Carolina Rice Law School graduate, sang “America the Beautiful.”

Rickenmann, whose parents were naturalized Americans from Switzerland, said the ceremony was “awesome.”

“I thought it was fantastic to see those 26 people get sworn in with all their family there,” said Rickenmann, 57, who attended his parents’ naturalization ceremony in 1972 when he was just a small child and really too young to understand. “I’m first generation. I didn’t even speak English until kindergarten.”

Bedenbaugh said he was “very moved” by the ceremony. “It was amazing to really see the future of America, to see people who earned their citizenship and who will continue helping make America the great country that it is.”